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Some stuff from Morroco ! (1 Viewer)

excellent work! Nice contract and color. The composition is fun retaining the energy of the field sketches. What is the size medium?
 
Probably Ed as I want to give the feeling of great speed and
movement. Funny some people love it or hate it when you
blur to suggest movement.

Yep- it can most definitely be overdone- depends a lot on the species. My retained mental image of a sandgrouse after it has gone past is pretty much of a distinctive body shape and no wings at all, rather as you get with a kingfisher. But as you say that isn't necessarily what a buyer of a fine painting wants to see..

Good luck with the work in progress!
 
excellent work! Nice contract and color. The composition is fun retaining the energy of the field sketches. What is the size medium?

Hi mattyb, The painting is roughly 40 cm x 57 cm on
gesso prepared board. I like working on board as I like the resistance
it gives when working on it and if you work carefully
with the Gesso primer you can achieve a really
smooth finish with hardly any tooth to it. I almost exclusively
use Acrylics, although I'm starting to do more oils now.
Thanks for the nice comments.
 
Yep- it can most definitely be overdone- depends a lot on the species. My retained mental image of a sandgrouse after it has gone past is pretty much of a distinctive body shape and no wings at all, rather as you get with a kingfisher. But as you say that isn't necessarily what a buyer of a fine painting wants to see..

Good luck with the work in progress!

Thanks Ed, yep I agree with you on the subect of wing movement.
Auks are a good example when you see em for real flying
along its hard to pick,out the wings at all its almost insect like
but do you portray it litraly as you see it and on a large painting
say. not sure? I think it would look odd.

See attached , quick drawing.

It should not be cut and dried though and I like to see people
painting in a more expresive style ( eg Manfred Shatz ) sometimes
works really well.
 

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Guy's Thought I would carry on with some of my Morrocan field
work and start putting them into more finished paintings.

I soooo wish I could do something like this!!

To have field sketch/notes, detail and landscape in one painting is very effective. Seems on these forums more than anywhere else I see artists coming up with ever more ideas on how to present their work.

Matt
 
I agree, Matt. The field sketch/painting combination is something I like to see and I prefer that style of presentation over a straight painting.
 
See attached , quick drawing.

That certainly makes the point- I hadn't previously thought about size of painting as factor in how to render something like that but I can well see that what works well in a little whizzy sketch- I don't think anyone did whirring wings on auks until Jonsson's little vignettes- may well not work on the bigger set-piece canvas. Thanks for taking time out to illustrate.
 
Wonderfully juicy chat piece, Andrew - utterly fabulous! I presume this goes straight onto the gallery wall?

Well yes it should Tim but I'm trying to build a body of work from
the Morrocco trip so we will see.

I'm going to suggest to my manager about the possibilty having the Gallery that represent me have a show from just purely field work.


It would Feature you guy's In London.I'm not promising anything but wouldnt
that be great! some of the wonderful stuff we see here up on the
wall all together. I'm probably getting too carried away but it might
be possible.

These drawings that we do in the field are so much more than just
referance . And I feel they should be shown.I don't know what they are going to say?? some real talent here I'd like to see more people showing their
field work.
 
Andy those Moussier's are class!

I'm just blown away by the increasing plethora of artistic talent on this forum - it's all so inspiring - I used to have a massive collection of Art books ranging from Renaissance to Post-Impressionist (my fav.) to Cubism and Post mod. I'd spend hours just browsing through them enjoying the colour plates. I gave the lot to charity when I stopped painting/drawing. (don't go there!;) ) Now, all i need to do is browse through BF portfolios and see work such as yours and it does the same for me!
 
I collect bird art books, such as those by Tunnicliffe, Jonsson, et al and I regularly browse these for inspiration. When you do art yourself, you can also look at the pictures and go 'ah, so that's how it is done!'
 
Andy those Moussier's are class!

I'm just blown away by the increasing plethora of artistic talent on this forum - it's all so inspiring - I used to have a massive collection of Art books ranging from Renaissance to Post-Impressionist (my fav.) to Cubism and Post mod. I'd spend hours just browsing through them enjoying the colour plates. I gave the lot to charity when I stopped painting/drawing. (don't go there!;) ) Now, all i need to do is browse through BF portfolios and see work such as yours and it does the same for me!

Deborah, thanks for the complements they are appreciated. I to am
into other types of art I don't pretend to have a deep
understanding of it and alot of modern art is complete tosh
as far as I'm concerned but I like a variety of styles and
movements. For example I love the work of Robert Heindel.
He's a painter that blows me away.
Mitch Griffis is another young portraite painter that is
fantastic.
one of the mags I like to look through is international Artist mag.

One regret I have at college was that I didnt pay much attention in
Art History class . But to be honest the teacher was'nt
much cop anyway so I think that didnt help.

But one thing that you said is on this forum there's alot to admire
and learn from its done alot for my drive at the mo.
just would like to see more
 
Your Redstart piece leaves me speechless, absolutely marvellous.
Wing blurring I find very difficult to carry off successfully, but you can obviously do it well, so use it where appropriate, it adds to the overall success of this composition of poses.
 
Thankyou people for your kind coments and thoughts on my
work. I thought I better post the Hoopoe Lark sketches
for you to see. Hoopoe larks were something we saw quite
alot of whilst out in the desert areas around Missour.

mostly the Males doing his song flights from perched
positions.

not the most colourful bird but thats to be expected in
such an arid environment. But then it opens it wings
and flies! wow! very striking bird.

Did some reading up on this little fellow and the Twareg people
call this bird "The one that looses children" becuase of its
habit of drawing would be predators away by running along
the ground in front of them.
 

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Here's some more, the last is ideas for final paintings possibly.
let me know which studies jump out at you.

I like the bird on the wing in the bottom left of the last
drawings, that would make a good painting cos of the
stricking black and white of the wings possibly with him
coming off the top of a bush with desert backdrop.

or the other idea is becuase of the twareg story to do with
this birds habit of leading people away . they do sure
run on the ground alot.
 

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Great sketches - I think you are right, they are much more striking when in the air - with that lovely desert landscape below.
 
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