Elina's Corner (1 Viewer)

Wonderful, loving the Smew! Post away, they're such smart looking birds, who wouldn't want to sketch them all day long?

Thanks for the comments & welcomes! (Wow, what a long post, sorry about that. Feel free to skip straight to the scetches. )

At the moment I'm frustrated, because I can't get what I see with my minds eyes on paper. Yesterday I saw my very first Red knots, so it was quite annoying to be watching them (at pretty close range) and trying to scetch them and then not be able to produce even a reasonable scetch. Oh how I wished I could turn into Lars Jonsson or Killian Mullarney overnight and just have the talent of making lifelike field scetches... But I guess I'll just have to go the same way as the others - hard work and hours days years of practice.

Today I was listening to one of the best bird artists in Finland give a presentation. Wow, that was just wonderful, and Jari Kostet is such a talented artist! I learned a lot. I especially liked the tip of having many scetches going at the same time, so you can move from one scetch to another as the bird is turning around.

This artist I was listening to was saying it's pretty much impossible to scetch with binoculars. Huh? It is complicated, but... I have been doing bino scetching for a week or so now, it's tough, but since it's the only way I can do my field scetches for the time being, then I shall do it that way. A good scope is totally out of my reach at the moment. I guess I'll just have to learn to look more intetly, and to learn to remember more from one glance.

And then some scetches. The magpie I saw sitting atop a huge stone ball that lies in front of the university. It was tossing it's tail up and down, looking as if he were the king of the world. So I started scetching as soon as I got inside (spent the first half an hour or so of the "birdevening" scetching, the first presentation wasn't on drawing birds anyhow, so I managed to listen and scetch at the same time).

The scetches of the mallard I did also this evening, though I witnessed the event while jogging this morning. I saw a female mallard and a hooded crow having a sort of a fight by a stream. Curious, I jogged closer. The crow flew of and I realised there was a ball of ducklings on the ground. The mother mallard took her children and started swimming of along the stream, finally settling on the bank and taking her babies under her wings. I think I spent an hour or so, watching for them (had to chase off the crow once more). The ducklings were really small, I think they must have just hatched.

No, I'm not gonna post the Knots, they're a mess. But maybe I'll go and check on them tomorrow, maybe this time I'll have more of a clue on how to handle them on paper. I've gotten my frustration out now, writing here. Enough of ranting, time to get some sleep. Tomorrow is a new day with new scetces!

more super sketches . you have the character spot on.

It's tough to sketch birds that you don't 'know'. The best way I've found is to spend time with each type of bird, ducks, waders, warblers and so on. Although they all have differences they also all share a family resemblance. If you spend a week drawing warblers then try to draw swans the proportions are so different that it makes the first drawings of swans a real task. Perseverance and observation is the key. If it's possible, spend some time simply looking at your subject before you start sketching, it helps to get you into the feel of the bird, and that makes it easier to draw.

I'm really enjoying seeing your sketches at the moment, your enthusiasm and enjoyment are clear to see.

Mike

Woody said:

If it's possible, spend some time simply looking at your subject before you start sketching, it helps to get you into the feel of the bird, and that makes it easier to draw.

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Ah, good point! I'm always a bit too eager to get the pencils and papers out of my bag, afraid I might lose/forget something. Thanks for the tips, I'll keep those in mind.

Revolution!

I found a "new" (not so new I guess, but I hadn't just figured I could do this like this) way to do my scetching and I much prefer it to the pencil one! At least it seems to work better than the pencil for me. Using a light color pencil, in this case very light grayish blue, I can get a better scetch done than with a pencil. Huh? Interesting. I can start with very very light blurry line and mess up all I want without having to worry about dark lines I can't get rid of. When the right form is there, I just press harder and voila! There's the bird! And if I wan't to, I can get some darker shade at hand and work on the light scetch, giving it more depth and shape (or at least that's the plan, we'll see what happens with my color pencil revolution). I actually did a test - tried the regular pencil and the color one on paper and did similar poses of a bird. The color pencil ones were the ones that looked closer to what I had in mind.

Today I got an interesting call - and I left a book store super fast to go see some birds a friend of mine had found. And... Well, I'm not telling what it is, because I want to see if it can be IDd from these scetches. In field I ended up making some not so good messy scetces + just watching the birds. At home I spent some 10 minutes staring at photos of the species, refreshing my memories. Then I put the photos away, and brought back in mind the sight of the birds, and started scetching (with the Solway Blue color pencil).

No need to try ID the Ringed plover and the Wood sandpiper (they're purely memory based and need some working on, if I end up making something more finished based on these scetces - or of these scetches).

EDIT: Uh, just realised the beaks aren't nearly long enough, gotta edit the scetches, but I'm not reposting them tonight, I need sleep. But let's see, if they can be identified despite the beaks.

GORGEOUS Terek sandpiper - I'm jealous indeed, my birding day was crap! A bit of advice as regards 'beaks too short' etc. It's art - I went through a period of painting wings twice as long as they really were -but it still looked OK, another time heads were enormous. Just draw things as big or as long as they seem and eventually everything will fall into place. It's great to see that you are dedicated to getting things right, and as long as this doesn't stop you enjoying what you do, good. For me, wildlife art is about sharing the emotions felt by observing nature, mostly joy and sometimes other feelings, and as long as you convey what you feel in your pictures, who cares about whether they're anatomically correct (this is slightly hypocritical of me as I am a known 'fiddler').

Nice use of the new technique - resulting in a very strong series of drawings. Excellent stuff.

Wonderful job! Great to watch you find your way, and some bang on results you're putting out. I'll disagree with your artist's bin sketching comment too -- it's tough, certainly, but good field sketching isn't about tracing your subject. Not that I wouldn't take a scope over bins any day...

Nick - touché on what bird art should convey. Though I did edit the beaks, since my first thought when I saw the Tereks was: "Wow, their beaks are SO long!" So probably should have rather made them too long.

Tim - thanks.

Jomo - thanks, that is encourageing! I'm definitely living with the situation, and I've noticed that doing things the hard way usually teaches a lot.

Though I do admit, that at the moment I wonder whether I'd be better off now with an ok scope (a Nikon) than none at all as an aid to drawing birds, rather than waiting 'till I'll have enough money to get the Swarovski (might be years and years before a Swaro is in my reach)...

Today I'm gonna go to see the Tereks with a young birdwatcher from Greece. I haven't told him, what we're gonna go to see, though. I really wait forward to seeing the look on his face! And I really hope the sandpipers are still there. And I hope it won't rain.

Oops, I should be working already, instead I've been looking at paintings and scetches here. But wait, that's never time wasted.

We didn't see the Tereks, we didn't see the Temminks... Actually, there were only a few birds there, the sea had risen so there wasn't much sand and it was raining all the time.

Some older scetches from 2006-2007 (caspian tern from this fall, though). Memory based scetches (mistle thrush and dipper inspired by photos my friends have taken, but still memory based). Some details (like color patterns) checked from a bird guide. Nuthatch was a lifer, as well as the Black-Throated Thrush.

More recent. Waders from wader watch, Emperor penguin (ended up scetching while watching the March of the Penguins), and Tereks from waderwatch. The way their necks stretch is too comical, when they preen - looked like a mix of Pinochio and Donald Duck.

EliS said:

More recent. Waders from wader watch, Emperor penguin (ended up scetching while watching the March of the Penguins), and Tereks from waderwatch. The way their necks stretch is too comical, when they preen - looked like a mix of Pinochio and Donald Duck.

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Great to see these, tons of character in here. plovers are particularily well drawn. Three Toed Pecker is lovely work too, and am just plain jealous of the Black Throated Thrush!

EliS said:

Though I do admit, that at the moment I wonder whether I'd be better off now with an ok scope (a Nikon) than none at all as an aid to drawing birds, rather than waiting 'till I'll have enough money to get the Swarovski (might be years and years before a Swaro is in my reach)...

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Ha, the first thing other birders always ask me when they see my scope is a polite, "What kind of scope is that?" (It's a collapsible Vixen, no one's ever heard of it, and it's completely dwarfed by the pricey Zeiss and Swaros lined up next to it at the sewage lagoons.) But it is a wonderful sketching tool, particularly if waders and waterfowl are your thing, and I expect it to last me a number of years before I splurge for the good one. Entirely up to you, of course, particularly if you're intent on saving up for that Swaro (even the less expensive scopes are a good chunk of change). A simple tripod mount for your bins might suffice -- a steady view and free hands matter much more than magnification when it comes to sketching, I find.

Oh, and forgot to mention -- that Three-toed sheet is just wonderfully observed.

The pecker sheet is indeed wonderful. I'm still trying to save for my swaro/leica but in the meantime the kowa has been a real boon. It was still quite an investment but, for me, it's been worth every penny.

Mike

Agree with the above - but just to pop in a word about optical aids. Yes, buy what you can afford, but no - the most expensive aren't always the best tool for YOU as an individal. I have a Nikon (ok it's top of the range, ED82) but when field-tested with a top Swaro and a Leica - I found it actually better. The point is, it suits me and that's what I need. Incidentally I had an ancient Opticron HD60 for 20 years, only parting with it last year - it was just fine, except it was a straight. My bins are 30 years old - 10x40-Optolyth Alpins. They get a few glances from the red-spot brigade. Anything which gets ypu closer to the action is worthwhile - better still, sit on a clifftop facing a 35 mph wind and let the fulmars come to you.

the three toeds are superb (and making me just a little envious), as are the tereks, what a wonderful bit of action.

Well... First, thanks all for the comments on drawings. Second, thanks for the comments on telescopes. Very insightful. If identifying far away UFOs (Unknown Feathered Objects) was my main interest, I should save for the swaro, just be patient. But more than that I want to just enjoy the birds while drawing and painting them. Looks like I'm seriously considering getting myself a scope here.

Nick - we don't have middle spotted woodpeckers in Finland so I've never even seen one, I think we're even.

EliS said:

Well... First, thanks all for the comments on drawings. Second, thanks for the comments on telescopes. Very insightful. If identifying far away UFOs (Unknown Feathered Objects) was my main interest, I should save for the swaro, just be patient. But more than that I want to just enjoy the birds while drawing and painting them. Looks like I'm seriously considering getting myself a scope here.

Nick - we don't have middle spotted woodpeckers in Finland so I've never even seen one, I think we're even.

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Not quite - there is one pair of 3-toeds here, but I don't know where! Didn't realise there were no middle spots in Finland.