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From Woody's 2007 sketchbook (1 Viewer)

Sometimes, because my sketchbook is with me nearly all the time, I sketch things other than birds. I travel regularly by coach, you may see me...if you do just don't fall asleep near me!
 

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Back to the other sketchbook.

Elmley has been my destination of choice for a while now so when I got the opportunity to slip over there for a couple of hours on Friday I couldn't resist. The weather was glorious, the morning felt like spring had finally decided to take a step towards summer. The drive out didn't yield much, the kingfisher is still absent and even my little owl must have found a more desirable perch for the day. The access road started with the starlings decorating almost every surface of the farm buildings, preening irridescent feathers in the low sun. A wren was flitting in and out of the weeds, searching busily for the small invertebrates that keep them going. Out to the first fence and the usual assortment of curlew, lapwing, gulls, crows, shelduck, wigeon, teal and starling. I am always tempted by the lapwings but decided instead to try further on for partridge and pheasant, all the while keeping a weather eye open for birds of prey. I always check all the posts and fences visible and a distant kestrel was a good reward but the prize of the day came on the way out (again!). Scanning the ground for movement my gaze was caught by an unusually shape sticking out from a mud pile. My hope was confirmed through the bins, then the scope as it resolved into a female merlin enjoying the sun. A yard or so in front of her were a pair of rabbits who 'only had eyes for each other' and the merlin occasionally glanced at them with a faint look of distain. I managed some photos and one sketch before she vanished -that's what happens when you take your eye off them for a second too long! But my day had been made and there's a new painting in my head.

Woody
 

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Once more to Elmley before the weather turned nasty on sunday.

The recent rain has flooded the fields and the sky reflects from the surface of the standing water producing wonderful abstract patterns of azure and emerald with the grass. Lapwings were very much in evidence and redshank scurried everywhere along the water edges. A pair of ringed plovers have moved back into the same area around a stretch of the access road where they were last year.

But my attention was focused on a distant post with a preening peregrine on top of it. I knew that the usual sequence of events would almost inevitably mean that as soon as she was ready she would take off like a shot and begin hunting. So I decided not to attempt sketching her but to keep by bins firmly locked on and enjoy the show. Sure enough, her plumage smoothed to her satisfaction, off she went, rising rapidly into the sky for a height advantage. She circled then plummeted groundwards, scattering the rising flocks and plunging through the confusion. She repeated the same tactic over and over for almost fifteen minutes before I lost sight of her. What a breathtaking show!

Sometimes it pays to simply watch the action without the distraction of sketchpads or cameras.

Woody
 

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Lovely work Woody. The Merlin in particular is a wonderful sketch. Must admit to having a soft spot for Merlins, really great birds!
Glad to read you are out and about and taking it all in, sounds like a grand old time! Just back from A Capercaille lek here, was quite a show!
All the best, keep the pencil sharpened....
 
Great combination of articulate prose and really strong and sensitive drawing (I like the portraits hugely) - redshanks are full of character and the merlin had probably formed itself into a painting even before you picked up your sketching tools!
Great stuff, Woody.
 
Thanks all. I love sketching, drawing and painting but, most of all, I love just being out there observing. When a special something, like the merlin or the peregrine, turns up it never fails to give me a big thrill and when the encounter is over I see paintings in my head.

Woody
 
For my birthday this weekend, I have been given a small sketching set of watercolours by my children. I used to paint exclusively in watercolour but gave it up a few years ago to concentrate on acrylics. I gave all my watercolours to a friend who uses them for landscapes so going back to them has been fun. My garden sparrows and collared doves have been the victims of my first return sketches, I think they liven-up the fieldwork considerably. I've realised already though that the tiny brush that comes with the set is not really suited to larger sketches (the collared dove) so I'll have to invest in some more wc brushes.

I've also used a photo of mine to produce a sketch of a kestrel, purely for my own amusement. I wish I could say it was a field sketch but it isn't! I'm just trying to get myself back in the flow of watercolour. 'What, no white?!!!'

Pencil field sketching continues as normal and a little egret was irrisistable at Elmley on sunday, even if it wouldn't stand still!

Woody
 

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Hi folks,

Just thought I'd post this small watercolour study. It's part of my preparation for an upcoming studio painting.

Woody
 

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Woody said:
Hi folks,

Just thought I'd post this small watercolour study. It's part of my preparation for an upcoming studio painting.

Woody

Has great character, nice liitle study... He looks a tad angry Woody, did you steal his wallet or something??;)
 
buzzard12 said:
Has great character, nice liitle study... He looks a tad angry Woody, did you steal his wallet or something??;)
Heh! Heh!

Problem with wrens is that damned supercilium! It always makes 'em look a bit p****d off!

But that's one of the reasons for the study I suppose. I'll try to avoid that angry look in the finished piece. His eye looks a little large to me too so there's another point for me to bear in mind. The final painting should be a lot of fun to do; it's got lots of rusty stuff in it so I'm looking forward to it!

Woody
 
These colour sketches are really on the button, Woody (maybe the wren's super starts a little too much over the front of the eye - I found all my wrens looked like this until I let the super start over and behind the eye - I think it's what happens in reality, to my eyes anyway) - the kes is a lovely study and your direct observational work is reaching new heights. Good lad.
 
Cheers Tim. I'm going out sketching today and one of my 'targets' is wrens, just to get another good look before work starts on the big painting. Got to get the kids and wife (she's a teaching assistant), to school first though.
 
Woody said:
Cheers Tim. I'm going out sketching today and one of my 'targets' is wrens, just to get another good look before work starts on the big painting. Got to get the kids and wife (she's a teaching assistant), to school first though.

Good look with that, ie finding a wren to pose when you need one!!

Personally I love the study because it captures the intenstity of the bird when it sings.

The reason it looks cross it that the super draws a straight line over the eye, as a former animator of human character I beg you to leave a little of that in there!!

When they sing the super flares, watch the shape of the eye change!
(read that years ago, Lawrence B Mc Queen, for birds, sense of connection)
(Next time you watch an animated movie watch the eyes, its drilled into you)
 
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buzzard12 said:
Good look with that, ie finding a wren to pose when you need one!!

Personally I love the study because it captures the intenstity of the bird when it sings.

The reason it looks cross it that the super draws a straight line over the eye, as a former animator of human character I beg you to leave a little of that in there!!

When they sing the super flares, watch the shape of the eye change!
(read that years ago, Lawrence B Mc Queen, for birds, sense of connection)
(Next time you watch an animated movie watch the eyes, its drilled into you)

That prompts a general thought on those damned supers - I always try and ask myself on a given bird whether the super really overhangs the bird's eye (just as the cartoonist would wish) or whether it sits a tiny touch above it and doesn't quite overhang/overshadow it. Oftentimes I end up reluctantly moving the super up a tiny touch so that the full circle of the eye is visible, unless it's one of the beefier raptors or an owl- or the head is viewed slightly from above.
 
Interesting to read artists' responses to technical challenge of painting the supercilium. I liked the jauntiness of the wren study and sketches and paintings of the sparrows.
 
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