[solitaryVSong]

Looking forward to seeing it develop Ed! Very nice teal sketches.

[buzzard12]

Originally Posted by ed keeble

Hello all. A bit of work in progress- will be 6ish teal in strong backlight if all goes according to plan. Basic idea is worked out and I managed to sneak down to the river today for a couple of teal sketches- and for once I have kept things under control enough for there to be a hole in the picture for them to go in.

To date I have succumbed to the temptation every time to daub white flashes into the water as the lazy short cut to make it look bright and wet- but this time I've hidden the white away and tried to render it as it was, with all the bright reflection coming off ther mud.

Onward

Already fascinating Ed, really strong abstact shapes and wonderful tones, love the strong blues. Look forward to seeing the birds go in, should be a real challenge to fit them in just right oin this strongly lit piece...

[timwootton]

Yes - this has bags of promise and teal look to be just the species for this piece. Love the mud!

[ed keeble]

Originally Posted by timwootton

Yes - this has bags of promise and teal look to be just the species for this piece. Love the mud!

Hello all. Not much time to progress this over the weekend, but I have managed to get the sentinel drake in as anchor. Might have to tone down the chestnut on the head n neck and get some upward reflected light on his throat, to match chest and belly. All being well, he will have 5 feeders to the left and 1 walker-in to the right of him, giving a 2-3-1--1 formation.

[timwootton]

. . . sounds good for playing Eastern European teams - rely on a quick break for the famous 0-1 scoreline (or hope for an opposing defender having been reading Rio's Guide To 'Creative' Defending).
Looks to be heading in precicely the right direction, this one.

[Woody]

I love all that sparkling mud, just right as a backdrop for wonderful wildfowl.

Mike

[ed keeble]

Originally Posted by Woody

I love all that sparkling mud, just right as a backdrop for wonderful wildfowl.

Mike

Hello all- I've been fiddling about rather than producing, but since things are quiet on the forum today I thought I would stick 'em up anyway

The Teal pic progresses, but I've done exactly what I set out not to do: I'd promised myself that the heads would be that lovely deep dark red colour like clotted blood or Kiwi brand shoepolish (like they are in real life), but lo and behold they have turned out that orangey brown (like they are in paintings). To be fixed...

Yet more bad news flying about on the mails about Spoon-billed Sandpiper. So I have momentarily cheered myself up on that topic by going back to a 2007 pic and reworking its head- just a reminder that if you have something that looks wrong or stupid headwise, even slightest changes to eye size shape and position can make a biiiig difference.

[timwootton]

So rght about the eye pos and relationship to bill, etc. I've so many paintings that I look at and see such glaring erors in draftsmanship and perspective - in fact, probably every one I've ever done!!!
Don't beat yersel up about the teals - they look great as they are but you've already identified the cause for concern. They'll look even better with a dab of oxblood - a la Doc Martin's circa 1978.

[colleenc]

very instructive, thanks for posting, I do like that last one the combination of sketch and more finsih is very attractive artistically.

[nickderry]

Tim's summed up my thoughts, good - it means I don't have to think this morning! Looking good!

[Woody]

They're starting to inhabit their muddy world very nicely.

Mike

[ChrissyM]

For ages, I have been trying to identify a bird that I keep seeing locally, Your Hobby drawing just did Great movement, excellent stuff...
As for your dilemma :( I like it as it is and I like the shadow....
All I can say is definately not colour!

[ed keeble]

Hello all. Slightly bogged down with the teal pic but had a nice stoaty moment over the weekend. I've got one living in the shed wall currently so when he was prancing about Sunday afternoon on the corrugated roof I managed to squeak him over to the kitchen window where he did a somersault, stuck his tail in the air and shot back to safety..

[timwootton]

What a fecking cracking drawing!!! - Just oozing stoatiness.
Just remembered - isn't squeaking stoats a criminal offence in Suffolk?

[buzzard12]

Originally Posted by timwootton

What a fecking cracking drawing!!! - Just oozing stoatiness.
Just remembered - isn't squeaking stoats a criminal offence in Suffolk?

That drawing is criminally good....

Brilliant Ed.

[nickderry]

Originally Posted by buzzard12

That drawing is criminally good....

Brilliant Ed.

exactly - last time I tried to draw a mustelid, looked like roadkill. Brilliant mid-bound.

[Apodemus]

Brilliant drawing.

Squeak away!.

[solitaryVSong]

I got so distracted by what stoats and stoatiness were, let alone squeaking stoats in Suffolk, that I never got around to saying what a great drawing this is! Really a lovely drawing Ed.

[ed keeble]

Originally Posted by solitaryVSong

I got so distracted by what stoats and stoatiness were, let alone squeaking stoats in Suffolk, that I never got around to saying what a great drawing this is! Really a lovely drawing Ed.

what a grand reaction all- very heartening

Tim may have been harking back to the days when the gamekeepers round here used to hang out weasel carcasses to dry on barbed wire fences and then gather 'em in to smoke them like cheroots over the winter

[Andrew H]

I think Stoat squeeking is still legel in some counties, so long as they're not lulled into a dead end...?
Great piccy thou, I want a stoat to squuek at now......bah

[Woody]

Damn but that stoat's good!

Mike

[colleenc]

what a grand "catch the moment" this sketch is....is a stoat a weasel?

[timwootton]

Originally Posted by colleenc

what a grand "catch the moment" this sketch is....is a stoat a weasel?

Nope - but they are very closely related. How to differentiate between the two can be simplified as the old country saying goes;
One is weasily recognised whereas the other is stoatally different.

[colleenc]

I've missed a lot Tim, being born in California instead of Yorkshire...

[ed keeble]

Hello there- just to drop in on my slumbering thread- currently fiddling about with the digi-swallow design for Birds Korea. The truly ghastly perched birds which have featured somewhere up thread have been put to one side and we now have a flier (spp. gutturalis, so whitish underneath and narrow gorget).

Version 1 went down OK but I was tactfully asked to make head smaller, wings broader and sort the eye out, so with a quick warp in photoshop we now have version 2.

I have a slight ethical dilemna in that swallows have a blue splot at the base of the tail which interrupts the smooth run of the tapered parsnippy body from nape to tail- most artists omit/ignore it, Jonsson shows it of course, as attached. Each time I try and stick it, in it looks wrong- so tempting to forget it on purpose, but anyways a problem still to be solved..