JTMB's Bird Art (1 Viewer)

colleenc

Well-known member

• Jun 5, 2011

• #401

well I really like the comp of the birds, with maybe a bit more offset on the top one to get it apart from the mid bird, I think it has really possibility and is fresh and new...the bills are amazing and reason enough to paint them.

I only offered the other as I know you want to learn how to paint, and in a painting no matter what subject, Composition is the master key IMO, if all else is really done well and the comp is poor then nothing can overcome that. (I hope I did not offend you or anyone else by picking on that.) One way to check the comp is to turn the painting upside down or at different angles, so you see only the shapes, if they are pleasing as a shape and fit in an interesting way together and feel balanced at all angles, then the comp is usually strong. Multiple birds are always a greater challenge, and I think what you created with the viewpoint is very well done.

Comp is on my mind as I'm doing 100 of them for seascape and finding the best of the great seascape artists to study, with only rocks water and sky and huge contrasts to work out, the comp makes or breaks the thing, and it is no easy task to figure out

 

JTMB

Well-known member

• Jun 5, 2011

• #402

Peregrine eyeass video

Well, I really failed miserably at my stated intention of sketching the single Peregrine eyeass at Snoqualmie Falls during its development this year. The weather takes some blame, but I should have gotten over there more frequently. Here is a video from two days ago showing how quickly it has feathered out - the baby should fledge any day now. It's always amazing how instinctively the young know that they're going to soon be doing 'something' with those crazy wings. Enjoy this one - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fus8XLS9ajE.

Also, I don't think I've mentioned this, but I have a solo show coming up that opens June 24th and runs for six weeks. I also got two of my bird paintings into a large juried show that runs the weekend of the 25th and 26th of this month. The solo show will have 20 to 24 pieces - I have nineteen framed and ready to go now. The pieces will be about half landscape and half birds (plus a steelhead trout snuck in there somehow). Two of my landscapes are hanging in a juried show that finishes up this Friday, and I'll be submitting three pieces (two birds, one landscape) this Wednesday to another juried show that runs this coming weekend. The latter show still does things the old fashioned way - jurying the actual pieces rather than a digital submission. I'll post a couple pix from the solo show once it is hung.

 

colleenc

Well-known member

• Jun 6, 2011

• #403

Congratulations John, fantastic news....

the vid was SO cool! do you know what kind of camera was used?

 

JTMB

Well-known member

• Jun 6, 2011

• #404

Colleen,

I'm not sure what setup Scott uses, other than the fact that he has a jury-rigged lens. Somehow I think he got hold of an old manual camera lens, or scope or something and set it up with his video camera. When I first saw it I thought there was no way it could take decent images because it looked like something out of Mad Max, but he's filmed there for four or five years. My disclaimer is that I haven't run into him this year, so perhaps he has upgraded, but I suspect not. He's very frugal from all my interactions with him. If I find out any specifics when I run into him again, I'll let you know.

 

colleenc

Well-known member

• Jun 6, 2011

• #405

Thanks.....somewhere in the future after my phone is paid off I'm considering some kind of cam corder for motion work of waves and animals...one that is not pricey..

 

solitaryVSong

Well-known member

• Jun 7, 2011

• #406

Congratulations on all those shows John!

 

JTMB

Well-known member

• Jun 7, 2011

• #407

Peregrine Falcon has Fledged + Sora Sketch

Hi folks, and thank you Ken!

Well, the one baby that survived this year has now fledged - happened yesterday. Here is a link to a foggy video showing the youngster with that look all young raptors seem to have - 'Gulp, what do I do now?' 'How did I get over here anyway?' 'When are mom and dad going to bring me some more to eat?' 'Why can't I fly as well as they do?' The fog is due to mist from the falls in the air, although at several points you can see the bird pretty well, and you might want to watch to the end to get an idea of the power of the falls at higher-than-normal water. (The falls are around 250 feet high, and at flood stage - which this video isn't even close to - it is a heart-pounding sight. This year because of the very cold and wet spring, we are still getting a ton of snowmelt, which is keeping the river higher than normal for this time of year.) Here is the link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_k8ODWClfo.

Yesterday I did a bird survey on the nearby golf course for an Audubon bird-friendly course certification. This was the first of twelve monthly surveys involved in the certification, and I lucked out and had a gorgeous day - sun and low 70's. Saw a respectable 33 species, but the highlight was hearing a SORA call from the reeds in one of the water hazards. This is a pretty unusual species around here, and one I've only seen a couple times -including yesterday when as is typical for this bird, it vocalized but might as well have been invisible in the weeds. So I got inspired to do a quick sketch from a photo when I got home. This is in a 6 x 5 inch journal, all done with fountain pen and some washing with water. There is probably a half hour or so in the sketch.

 

Last edited: Jun 7, 2011

colleenc

Well-known member

• Jun 8, 2011

• #408

vid was cool, falls beautiful...and the journal is a treasure

 

Woody

Well-known member

• Jun 8, 2011

• #409

Shame that your sketching opportunities just too a nose dive, but good news that the chick didn't! I wouldn't have fancied its chances against all that spectacular water. The geology round here is largely chalk and water tends to dive underground at any opportunity, we certainly have nothing that could match falls like yours.

The sketchbook journal looks great, like one of those 19c explorers!

Mike

 

phil baber

Clipped Wing

• Jun 10, 2011

• #410

Nice work. And notebook, John!

 

Lykos

Well-known member

• Jun 10, 2011

• #411

thanks for the link,the little peregrine is sweet

and your sketchbook :t:

 

JTMB

Well-known member

• Jul 10, 2011

• #412

Thanks Colleen, Mike, Phil and Gaby!

Wow, it's been so long since I've posted that I fell to the bottom half of the second page. Shame on me! :C

Looks like I need to get back to doing some more bird work. My opportunity comes up in a couple weeks when I leave for my 26th annual float trip down the Deschutes River in Oregon. There are TONS of Osprey along the river because it is a world-class native trout river. We should see some very recently fledged young, and some that are about ready to fledge, in addition to the adults of course. Naturally, I'll be sketching the landscape there as well, but I will definitely spend time on the Osprey (and some other common bird species there).

The good news is that two of my bird paintings got accepted into one of the major juried shows in the area that ran a couple weekends ago. My wife snapped a couple photos of the two pieces, both of which I think I posted earlier in this thread - one is Hairy Woodpecker in Nest Hole, and the other American Goldfinch. Both are watercolor.

Here are the shots of the two pieces along with some of the other paintings.

 

nickderry

C'est pas ma faute, je suis anglais.

• Jul 10, 2011

• #413

congratulations on the show! They look great and really catch the eye.

 

timwootton

Well-known member

• Jul 10, 2011

• #414

Well done John - as Nick says they really are stand-out pieces (I remember te goldfinch was exceptional and the woody is perfect there). Good luck with the trip.

 

solitaryVSong

Well-known member

• Jul 10, 2011

• #415

Looks good John. I had to use Ed K's discovery of the 'icon' tool to go back through your images to find the original of the Goldfinch. Always good to have a success at your back before you head off on vacation. Good luck on that trip. I look forward to seeing the results, even if they're just quick field sketches.

The odd thing I always find about vacations like this is that I always pack up all sorts of sketchbooks thinking that I'll get scads of drawings. Then I finally get home and find that I've done extremely few. But I am improving. It just seems that I have to push myself more than I expect that I will.

 

colleenc

Well-known member

• Jul 10, 2011

• #416

congratulations John they look great in the show...have a great trip

and what is that Icon tool think Ken mentions, I missed that somehow

 

solitaryVSong

Well-known member

• Jul 10, 2011

• #417

colleenc said:

congratulations John they look great in the show...have a great trip

and what is that Icon tool think Ken mentions, I missed that somehow

Click to expand...

You didn't miss anything Colleen. It was me misremembering the name and not being awake enough to look at the icon and see that it looks like a paperclip - discovered by Ed K I think. It's next to each thread. If you click on it a list of all images will come up. Then you can click on any of them to look at them.

 

colleenc

Well-known member

• Jul 10, 2011

• #418

thanks! that's cool....

 

JTMB

Well-known member

• Jul 10, 2011

• #419

Thanks Nick, Tim, Ken and Colleen!

And thanks Ken for the info on the paperclip tool - I wasn't familiar with it, and it is going to be very useful knowing about it.

 

Woody

Well-known member

• Jul 11, 2011

• #420

Congratulations John! These look great, especially the woody.

Mike