OK ... deep breath! These are my efforts (1 Viewer)

joannec · Aug 19, 2007

Hi Deborah

I've been holding off posting on this thread while I considered a meaningful response. I am so pleased you are resuming your painting in earnest. What I like about this work is the sense of movement, the sense, say, that a perched bird is just about, but not quite, to take off. It's alive. Or it's seconds away from doing something else. Your ring ouzel is a case in point. Or like your heron, patiently waiting but can spring into action in a flash. They and your work are alive. Much wildlife art is static and lifeless (and I am not referring to anyone specifically on this forum). You get the shape and the structure too...you get the jizz!

So don't stop, keep at it, and I do think the immediacy of watercolour suits your style.

Joanne

deborah4 · Aug 19, 2007

Thanks Joanne - for me, that's probably the highest compliment I could be paid as it's so close to what I'd like to get from sketching/painting - I'm not trying to get birds exactly right (don't have the patience!!), more hoping to capture something of the essence of their vitality and behaviour - the thing that makes us all watch them in the first place I suppose - the results can be disasterous but sometimes, like a role of film, you get the odd shot that works out of loads that don't ...

deborah4 · Aug 20, 2007

AlanR said:
Just found this thread by accident.
Why don't you put your pictures up into your Gallery, Deborah, where they would get a much wider viewing?
Alan

I missed this yesterday Alan, sorry! It was bad enough getting up the nerve to post in the Art Forum, don't think I'm ready for the Gallery yet!

The nice thing about this Forum is everyone is so supportive and encouraging - it feels kinda cosy :-O

sunriseworkshop · Aug 20, 2007

Tell yourself, "My work is 10 times better than I think it is."

Maybe you'll start to see them the way everybody else does.

Kate

deborah4 · Aug 20, 2007

sunriseworkshop said:
Tell yourself, "My work is 10 times better than I think it is." Maybe you'll start to see them the way everybody else does. Kate

Believe me, if I thought my stuff was really awful, I wouldn't post them up at all!! (Have only deleted a few since I started LOL!) - I was always my most severe critic anyway, more from a sense of has what has been produced expressed desired intention? If so, then fine, if not, then it's marginally frustrating that's all - something perhaps we could all relate to? I'm just not used to showing anything to anyone but especially not used to drawing birds - so that will come with practice like everything else in life!

Here's a little w/c study of a Poppy for you and w/c painting of Vatican from several years ago - thought you'd like the bright colours?

matt green · Aug 20, 2007

deborah4 said:
Here's a little w/c study of a Poppy for you and w/c painting of Vatican from several years ago - thought you'd like the bright colours?

Love the vatican watercolour, used to enjoy penning old historic buildings/cathedrels etc myself ~ is this a detail from a larger pic?

Also like the little Cormorant from your earlier post, I love watching them out there, far out at sea ~ they look so completely lost within themselves! (wish I could do that myself sometimes

)

Matt

deborah4 · Aug 21, 2007

Some more HG's (sorrreee!) - just sketches, no progress with painting yet

matt green · Aug 21, 2007

The eye of the middle HG is particularly well executed, must have been a bit of a fiddle with such small details when using water colours?

Like the first pic too! ..great colours and movement with that one.

Matt

ARTHUR BISHOP · Aug 21, 2007

These are lovely Deborah

deborah4 · Aug 21, 2007

Thanks Arthur & Matt

Here's the final attempt at producing my first ever full bird composition! (the flash has made it look a bit pinker than it is and a lot of the linework didn't come out in photo)

timwootton · Aug 21, 2007

This is really successful, Deborah! The lighting is exquisitely rendered and the characterful activity just alive - great stuff. The overall composition is effective (a bit like the close-up panning on Rod Schneider's face on the beach in Jaws!). Great start - keep going . . .

deborah4 · Aug 21, 2007

lol! - Thanks for the encouragement Tim. ( just difficult to get a reasonable shot to upload it's really blurry??!) I'm quite pleased with the composition but my watercolour needs oodles of practice still.

matt green · Aug 21, 2007

One little piece of seaweed and still they squabble

Deb, thats great!

Now you have a ''completed work'' ..have it framed and whack it on the wall!!

Matt

Peewit · Aug 21, 2007

deborah4 said:
lol! - Thanks for the encouragement Tim. ( just difficult to get a reasonable shot to upload it's really blurry??!) I'm quite pleased with the composition but my watercolour needs oodles of practice still.

matt green said:
One little piece of seaweed and still they squabble

Deb, thats great!

Now you have a ''completed work'' ..have it framed and whack it on the wall!!

Matt

Hi Deborah

Everything that you have done here has been a wonderful artistic achievment for you - so well done. :t:

Your final composition: It is super so you have achieved every way that you have. I love the pink flush. It gives it more 'zzaz pinaz', my wording and it is not in the dictionary.

So all I can say here is love it, and I appreciate what you have done here a lot. It has been a joy to see and appreciate:t:

Keep on adding to your collection here. I want to see more of your abilities here, now and in the future. :t:

A fan here for life.

deborah4 · Aug 22, 2007

Cheers for the comments. BUT I DON'T LIKE IT!! :'D (honestly)

tried messing around with different techniques on my new pastel sketchpad (these are reworked fieldsketch - gulls again and rehashed an old Redshank sketch, don't have any others at the moment)

Charcoal, chalk, pencil and watercolour - took about 20 minutes for each

joannec · Aug 22, 2007

deborah4 said:
Cheers for the comments. BUT I DON'T LIKE IT!! :'D (honestly)

Without meaning to be rude, I don't like the pink either.....perhaps you should make a point of photographing it in natural light, take it outside if necessary.(difficult with current weather)

Joanne

Edit: just referring to the pink....not the picture, I like the action.

ARTHUR BISHOP · Aug 22, 2007

These are full of character Deborah

deborah4 · Aug 23, 2007

ARTHUR BISHOP said:
These are full of character Deborah

Thanks Arthur, appreciate the feedback

(Is it me, or has it gone a little quiet round here?:h?: )

Andrew Ellis · Aug 23, 2007

Deborah, lovely work. keep going with it. the redshanks are
beautiful.

dryslwyn · Aug 23, 2007

Really like the mixed media work -especially the first gull. My first thoughts were that it would be a lovely image for a card.

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