timwootton
Well-known member
Hi Chris - hope the studies are going well. There a re a few lovely drawings hidden amongst these sheets and the whoopers benefit from your simple approach - very pleasing.
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Painting Improvements (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter chris3871
- Start date
ARTHUR BISHOP
Well-known member
nice to see you about Chris love the sketches and w/col.
Well, I'm back for Christmas, (In fact I have been since Monday) so the paints are back out. When I was back in October for a week I went down to Old Moor and got some sketches of an obliging snipe done and started a fairly crappy acrylic of it. I wasn't happy with it really when I got back, so I decided to start again in watercolours. I've attached the finished piece.
I also have attached some fieldsketches from a half day at the local patch, the day before yesterday. I've not got any ideas for paintings at the minute but I'll post as soon as I have something else to show you.
Merry Christmas Everyone!
I also have attached some fieldsketches from a half day at the local patch, the day before yesterday. I've not got any ideas for paintings at the minute but I'll post as soon as I have something else to show you.
Merry Christmas Everyone!
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nickderry
C'est pas ma faute, je suis anglais.
Your snipe is fanatastic - the composition is wonderful, very bold and rhythmic, and the colours in the water are superb - in fact that is some of the most water-like water I've seen painted! The Greylag turning his head on the sketch sheet deserves a mention - last time I tried drawing greylags they looked like heads stuck on helter skelters.
timwootton
Well-known member
Very fine work Chris - the snipe has turned out beautifully and the sketches just leave me wishing you could spend a bit longer on hols - and post the results!!!
Hi all,
I know my posts have been incredibly sporadic, I apologise. I haven't had much chance to paint at all over Christmas.
I'm back at uni now, and I'm meant to be revising, but it's easy to get distracted. I got a lift back to Leeds on Sunday and on the way we called in at Fairburn Ings to get a look at a couple of Long Eared Owls that have been showing well lately. I know I'm meant to be reading up on statistics, but I rewarded myself for an hours focus with a quick sketch of one of them before lunch. This is what I got.
I've brought the camera back to uni with me for this term, so even though I've not got any paints or brushes I can upload biro sketches now. I'll try and get pictures up regularly now- when time allows. There's not a lot to draw from life here right now, magpies being the only bird I see regularly, but I have a few photos on the lap top of birds I encountered over the holidays that I can get scribbling down.
All the best,
I know my posts have been incredibly sporadic, I apologise. I haven't had much chance to paint at all over Christmas.
I'm back at uni now, and I'm meant to be revising, but it's easy to get distracted. I got a lift back to Leeds on Sunday and on the way we called in at Fairburn Ings to get a look at a couple of Long Eared Owls that have been showing well lately. I know I'm meant to be reading up on statistics, but I rewarded myself for an hours focus with a quick sketch of one of them before lunch. This is what I got.
I've brought the camera back to uni with me for this term, so even though I've not got any paints or brushes I can upload biro sketches now. I'll try and get pictures up regularly now- when time allows. There's not a lot to draw from life here right now, magpies being the only bird I see regularly, but I have a few photos on the lap top of birds I encountered over the holidays that I can get scribbling down.
All the best,
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timwootton
Well-known member
This is a superb drawing Chris - really lovely sensitivity of line. Love the half-closed eyes - just spot-on.
Look forward to slightly more regular contributions now
- also, if you're fed up with watching magpies you could send a few up here - Great birds, much missed.
Look forward to slightly more regular contributions now
- also, if you're fed up with watching magpies you could send a few up here - Great birds, much missed.I was having a bit of a moan yesterday about seeing nowt but magpies, so I've done you one. Who knew they were so hard to draw properly! I'm still not too fond of this one; he looks a bit 'cartoony' somehow but it's the best I can muster. They're quite rounded birds so I was tending to draw them quite fat.
Besides, it seems my 'there's-no-birds-in-Leeds' complaint was a little misplaced. I was sick of sitting inside this morning so took a walk in the woods behind our house. I thought they would be ugly litter-filled woods full of druggies, and well, they are really, but i'd overlooked the fact that it doesn't have to be pretty to contain wildlife. I found enough stuff on my hours walk to keep me interested; saw two nuthatches- a bird I often struggle to find back home in the East Riding, a huge roving flock of Long-Tailed tits, a flyby from a pair of Bullfinch, a pretty little stock dove peacefully pecking away in a boggy bit by a river I never knew existed. A little further up a big old grey heron waded about in the water beneath the trees; funny to see a heron in such thick woodland, he would've been a lovely painting. On the way back watched a treecreeper flitting about. I never knew that the wood was so full of birds- I'm just annoyed I've been living here 4 months and only just found out about it!
Besides, it seems my 'there's-no-birds-in-Leeds' complaint was a little misplaced. I was sick of sitting inside this morning so took a walk in the woods behind our house. I thought they would be ugly litter-filled woods full of druggies, and well, they are really, but i'd overlooked the fact that it doesn't have to be pretty to contain wildlife. I found enough stuff on my hours walk to keep me interested; saw two nuthatches- a bird I often struggle to find back home in the East Riding, a huge roving flock of Long-Tailed tits, a flyby from a pair of Bullfinch, a pretty little stock dove peacefully pecking away in a boggy bit by a river I never knew existed. A little further up a big old grey heron waded about in the water beneath the trees; funny to see a heron in such thick woodland, he would've been a lovely painting. On the way back watched a treecreeper flitting about. I never knew that the wood was so full of birds- I'm just annoyed I've been living here 4 months and only just found out about it!
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timwootton
Well-known member
Fabulous drawing Chris - every bit a magpie! And well done about the 'discovery' of your local woodland. It's always an extra little thrill when you find something like this so close to home. No more excuses about lack of subject matter too .
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nickderry
C'est pas ma faute, je suis anglais.
hats off to this magpie indeed - a genuine scratchy, jerky and perky bird. Makes me feel like a fraud as I've just sold my most expensive picture ever - of a group of magpies, and I'd have been chuffed to bits if even one of them had come close to being as true to the real thing as this drawing.
Thanks for the kind words, though probably not quite deserving of Nick's.
No drawings today but I found a couple in the sketch book dated as December 21st. Done at Far Ings(except the seal), North Lincolnshire. The Great Crested Grebe is my favourite.
I did want to get a painting of the dead seal done too, even though it may seem a little gruesome. I saw a big Herring Gull sitting on his back, and the sun was really low (21st being the longest day and all), there was no-one on the beach- at the time it didn't seem gruesome at all just quite peaceful. Might be hard to translate the beauty of the scene into anything other than the rotting remains of a dead animal.
No drawings today but I found a couple in the sketch book dated as December 21st. Done at Far Ings(except the seal), North Lincolnshire. The Great Crested Grebe is my favourite.
I did want to get a painting of the dead seal done too, even though it may seem a little gruesome. I saw a big Herring Gull sitting on his back, and the sun was really low (21st being the longest day and all), there was no-one on the beach- at the time it didn't seem gruesome at all just quite peaceful. Might be hard to translate the beauty of the scene into anything other than the rotting remains of a dead animal.
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nickderry
C'est pas ma faute, je suis anglais.
Nice sketching. It's always difficult to paint gruesome things - I suppose it's that thought at the back of our minds that says that art has to be beautiful and aesthetically pleasing, and as a consequence, pleasing in every way. I think that if you want to paint something, go ahead and paint it and don't worry about whether it's going to come across as gruesome. I remember once, somebody really enjoyed a painting I did of a group of crows in a field full of sheep, until they noticed that the big red and white blob in the middle was a big bloody sheep's corpse. It went down in their estimation, but up in mine.
timwootton
Well-known member
Quite right. Art ought to be really about self-expression first and fremost (otherwise there really is no point, is there?) These are great drawings Chris and I think, with evocative subdued lighting (I imagine backlit) and a statuesque gull in frame, this would make, not only a stunning image, but also a valid commentary on the way things are. Nature isn't cruel - it just is.
Give it a crack, eh?
(21st of Dec - longest day? - nice part of East Yorks you live in!)
Give it a crack, eh?
(21st of Dec - longest day? - nice part of East Yorks you live in!)
Oh yeah, longest night more like!
The way you've imagined the scene was pretty much as I saw it: a low but bright winter sun breaking through the clouds, the wet sand reflecting the sunlight as bright as the sky itself, and the big, chocolate brown seal casting a long shadow towards me. Will get some sketches done, and paint it next time I'm home.
