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Mike's conservatory (6 Viewers)
- Thread starter Woody
- Start date
nickderry
C'est pas ma faute, je suis anglais.
Tims already found my favourite waggy - they're all good. I could recognise them from the thumbnails before reading the text - you've got the shape and jizz perfectly.
Woody
Well-known member
Cheers guys, I'm enjoying hanging a bit looser with the sketching at the moment, I think I'd been trying too hard lately.
Anyhoo, I can't get out tomorrow, Beth's off to Cornwall for a week's adventuring so I'm on taxi duty.
So I nipped over to Elmley for an hour or two this morning and I'm bl**dy glad I did too.
I'd more or less resigned myself to seeing little else other than nesting avocets but the common terns were hanging about still so they went in the book and I was quite happy with that.
Then, as I was starting the walk back, I spotted a female wheatear on a gate and as I got focussed I caught a movement a bit lower down and up popped a gorgeous male whinchat! The wheatear flew off but the whinchat stayed around for quite a while, much to my delight, so I filled a couple of pages, and got a few shakey and distant shots too, chuffed to bits I am, I love whinchats and see them only rarely so it's a real treat to get one willing to pose for me. After he'd gone I walked up the gate and got some reference shots for background so I feel a painting coming on!
Oh, there were a couple of med gulls mixed in wth the blackheads too, a good day considering!
Mike
Anyhoo, I can't get out tomorrow, Beth's off to Cornwall for a week's adventuring so I'm on taxi duty.
So I nipped over to Elmley for an hour or two this morning and I'm bl**dy glad I did too.
I'd more or less resigned myself to seeing little else other than nesting avocets but the common terns were hanging about still so they went in the book and I was quite happy with that.
Then, as I was starting the walk back, I spotted a female wheatear on a gate and as I got focussed I caught a movement a bit lower down and up popped a gorgeous male whinchat! The wheatear flew off but the whinchat stayed around for quite a while, much to my delight, so I filled a couple of pages, and got a few shakey and distant shots too, chuffed to bits I am, I love whinchats and see them only rarely so it's a real treat to get one willing to pose for me. After he'd gone I walked up the gate and got some reference shots for background so I feel a painting coming on!
Oh, there were a couple of med gulls mixed in wth the blackheads too, a good day considering!
Mike
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timwootton
Well-known member
Ahhh whinchats! Haven't seen one for quite a while but these super drawings bring the memories back. Thanks for that, Mike. Some solid work with the terns too - one or two really nice postural studies. Look forward to the colour whinchat piece keenly.
Strandman
Well-known member
More congrats on the Whinchat- spring males conjure up a really strong sense of place and that's one you will remember for ages. Congrats on escaping taxi duty too- I've managed to get shot of the female wing of the family tommorrow and and am begging my son to join me on a foray up the coast, but so far no joy. I'm old enough to remember when kids (or children as they were then called) were simply told what was planned with no negotiating or indeed warning..
ARTHUR BISHOP
Well-known member
love the sketches Mike
Woody
Well-known member
The big tree is now woody free and is sitting on the back burner awaiting small bird inspiration. I'm busy with a mid sized painting and between sessions I've managed a couple of trips out to Elmley to sketch the residents. Avocets are the most obvious bird at present and even I can't resist them forever. The common terns are still gracing us with thier streamlined beauty and a few blackwits have been skulking about trying to avoid being noticed and getting kicked off the scrape by the avo bully boys. Yellow wags are all over the place, singin, preening, makin whoopie etc., and sedge warlers rattle out thier asthmatic wheezes from every reedbed and ditch.
Took Beth out for a walk at her request the other day, it's a rare thing to be able to fit it in between all the rehearsals for the various performances she's got coming up so it was an opportunity to be grabbed with both hands. For someone who claims to be uninterested she seemed to get pretty excited about adding whitethroat, turtle dove and, (best of all), cuckoo to her growing list! Happy days!
Mike
Took Beth out for a walk at her request the other day, it's a rare thing to be able to fit it in between all the rehearsals for the various performances she's got coming up so it was an opportunity to be grabbed with both hands. For someone who claims to be uninterested she seemed to get pretty excited about adding whitethroat, turtle dove and, (best of all), cuckoo to her growing list! Happy days!
Mike
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buzzard12
Well-known member
ARTHUR BISHOP
Well-known member
Lovely sketches Mike can only agree about the avocet
Rahul Parekh
Well-known member
lovely sketches Mike. Its a treat. Loved your paintings too 
Amazing.
All best wishes,
Cheers, Rahul
Amazing.All best wishes,
Cheers, Rahul
Woody
Well-known member
OK, I've been quiet lately but I'm still working on bits and pieces. This fairly big painting is a whisker away from being finished but my good lady wife and my darling daughter have an issue with it. So I said I'd put it before you learned ladies and gents for an opinion poll. (I may still go with my gut regardless but I promised I'd ask.)
So the question is: Should the blue butterfly stay or go?
Mike
So the question is: Should the blue butterfly stay or go?
Mike
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mark richards
Well-known member
seems ok to me mike...:t: you dont need it there, but its ok if you know what i mean:-O mark. (forgot to say very nice painting)
mark richards
Well-known member
no put it back....
Woody
Well-known member
Too late! The general consensus was that, because it was the only blue, it drew the eye too much and became a focal point detracting attention from the birds and interrupting the diagonal.
I'm ready to call it a day on this one (very nearly) so Right now I'm off to do something loose, and that has nothing to do with the curry I just ate!
Mike
Attachments
timwootton
Well-known member
Oi, what's going on? I've just gone back through the thread and spotted loads of stuff I either haven't seen or certainly haven't commented on. That's the trouble with only getting internet access three days a week.
So - the godwits are brilliant - there are some shapes and beautifully described forms that could be straight from Ennion's own sketchbook. There really are some beauties.
The hares are full of mad-hattersome character - those staring eyes are superb and the cocked ears tell a story.
Love this red-leg pic and I think you called it right - the blue (although gorgeous in its own right) jarrs somewhat with the warm tones which run through the painting.
Splendid work all round.
So - the godwits are brilliant - there are some shapes and beautifully described forms that could be straight from Ennion's own sketchbook. There really are some beauties.
The hares are full of mad-hattersome character - those staring eyes are superb and the cocked ears tell a story.
Love this red-leg pic and I think you called it right - the blue (although gorgeous in its own right) jarrs somewhat with the warm tones which run through the painting.
Splendid work all round.
