Recent sketches (1 Viewer)

phil baber · Jun 6, 2010

Very special yet again!

Would love to see how your recent Far East experience will have boosted your recent "local" sketches?

Yours, in anticipation...:cat:

RussB · Jun 6, 2010

Spent a few hours at Old Moor today. My main interest was the pair of ad med guls that have recently taken up residence in the BHG colony here. Apparently one was out of sight (sitting?) while the other occasionally strutted its stuff. I'd never seen summer plumage birds before; what a delight!
Talk about Keehar from Watership Down! That must have been modelled on sp med. Hopefully these will hang around and provide inspiration in the weeks to come. Sketch of bird doing nowt in particular.
The Chinese have a strange fixation with digging, and I have one with Tufted Ducks! Don't know why. Perhaps it's because they're always selling themselves. Apparently, Chris Rose also has a 'thing' for them. A couple of attempts to capture birds in interesting non-side-on postures.
Also, preening BHG in difficult pose that just about works. Wants enlarging, though.

Cheers

Russ

nickderry · Jun 6, 2010

Who can resit a tuftie, they're gorgeous birds and the sketches here are superb too. Love the med gulls, the problem with the beak on the first page is clearly resolved on the one facing downwards on the second page - spot on.

RussB · Jun 6, 2010

Cheers Nick.
Clearly a man with a good taste in duck. Not the type served with plum sauce either!

ARTHUR BISHOP · Jun 6, 2010

Just superb sketching

phil baber · Jun 6, 2010

Love the preening BHGull especially Russ.

Great capture of behaviour!

solitaryVSong · Jun 7, 2010

ARTHUR BISHOP said:
Just superb sketching

Indeed!

I wonder if I'm mistaken in thinking that you're also adding a bit more dark tone to your drawings. It seems like I've seen it cropping up more and more and adds something to the drawings I think.

phil baber · Jun 8, 2010

solitaryVSong said:
Indeed!

I wonder if I'm mistaken in thinking that you're also adding a bit more dark tone to your drawings. It seems like I've seen it cropping up more and more and adds something to the drawings I think.

Unfortunately Ken, I think we may be seeing the "flowering of a true great talent" here...

Ah well! :-C :cat:

B

colleenc · Jun 8, 2010

Def coming into your own, really love these last sketches, they have the strength of value now not just line and that adds volume and dimension,
Bravo!

Woody · Jun 8, 2010

The BHG does much more than 'just about work'. It's a cracking capture.

Mike

RussB · Jun 8, 2010

Thank you all for your very motivational comments, guys. This year I'm hoping to spend at least one hour in the illustrious company of one BF regular! I know 99% of folk pursue field work on their own, me included, but I do wonder if working with someone else would inspire me to greater things!

Russ

Ps - or have me chucking my sketchbook away!

RussB · Jun 12, 2010

A few hours at Pugney's today before the domestics intervened. I find cormorants fascinating subjects, and I've been trying a looser style, almost drawing without taking my eye of the bird at times, which I read is supposed to give honesty to the lines. One problem: I could go through a full sketchbook in one go with this approach If I weren't careful! The legendary JB is a fan of Shags (so am I!) for the shapes they throw, so I'll have to make do with their inland, and far less popular, inland cousins.
I have found them very difficult in the past, but with the support on BF, they are improving. The last one doesn't have a fish stuck; it was panting, or controlling its body temp! I'm not an ornithologist!

Back tomorrow, off to watch the footie.

Cheers
Russ

nickderry · Jun 12, 2010

don't see how filling a sketchbook with such fine shapes could ever be perceive as a problem - there's something exceptionally satisfying about getting those curves on paper - you've done these wonderfully.

phil baber · Jun 12, 2010

Great sketch work RB!

Economy of line is really beginning to show in your work, and I love that!

colleenc · Jun 12, 2010

what life and freedom in these:t:

timwootton · Jun 13, 2010

Brilliant work Russ - I think it will be me taking a few tips from you when we get together!

solitaryVSong · Jun 13, 2010

All those comments above are correct. Really striking, lively sketches. I thought I'd commented yesterday but my mind must have wandered off into the ozone instead..........

ARTHUR BISHOP · Jun 13, 2010

brilliant sketches esp.like third sheet

RussB · Jun 13, 2010

Thankyou chaps!

Today I tried something a bit harder. Like many here, I love waders and find the lure of drawing them irresistible. The feeding wader, for me, is a real challenge. Again I'm presented with the same problem (if that's what it is!) of deciding what to put in or leave out, plus the placement of the legs, which gets me time again! I find I can only focus on the head, bill and body at one time - not the legs. I have to draw them in after and they inevitabely look like they are 'stuck on', and something is lost. I am now begining to appreciate how skilled the Busby/Ennion school of sketching really is. There might be six or seven lines and a squiggle of plumage and an impression of a face pattern, but that's all thee needs to be. One day, hopefully!

Resting Ringed Plover; the idea nicked from Lars, but ridiculously easy when compared to the moving bird; and some sketches of Redshank. To complete the drawing with a bit of detail I had to keep observing until it assumed the position I initially sketched it in. I wonder if this is the only way to go - for mortals anyway!
Another RP sketched turning its head.

Cheers

Russ

nickderry · Jun 13, 2010

looking at some of these, you wouldn't think you found it difficult to do them - superb moving birds.

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C'est pas ma faute, je suis anglais.

Clipped Wing

Well-known member

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Going for Gold

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C'est pas ma faute, je suis anglais.

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