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Topography Pictures Wanted (1 Viewer)

delia todd

If I said the wrong thing it was a Senior Moment
Staff member
Opus Editor
Supporter
Scotland
It would be great if we could get an Opus Topography article and I thought the talented artists in here would be the best people to approach to try and forward this project.

The pictures we think would be most useful (though you may have more ideas) are

Basic whole-bird shapes:
Passerine
Wader
Duck
Gull
Raptor

(For the passerine, maybe the bird could become a mix of several, for example the head of a reed bunting with wingbars of a blue grosbeak, or maybe even the entire wing of a Pallas's Leaf-Warbler so that both wingbars and primary extension can be pointed out)

(It may be that we need pictures of side-views, rear views and perhaps underneath (raptor in flight comes to mind))

Close-ups of:

Heads - to show different adornments.. eyestripes, wattles, etc etc

Wings - to show Primaries, secondaries, wing bars etc

Beak types

Feet types

At the moment we are looking for the drawings, so it doesn't matter if you don't know how to 'label' the different areas - others are prepared to do that.

These are just some of the ideas the Opus Editors have batted around, as I said earlier, maybe you have some more and better ideas.

It was this thread that started it all off, and I thought, where better to direct them but to an Opus article which would show everything.

D
 
Ooops I forgot Owls and their facial discs!

Please don't think this has to be a one-person project... I'm, sure some of you may have better knowledge of waders than raptors, or be better at drawing feet than beaks.

D
 
Tim asked me to post here so that you all knew what was happening to avoid duplication of work.

Thanks Tim for your 'mythical passerine' picture. :t: This is in the process of being labelled; the Opus Editors discussing the best format for them.

Colleen has also supplied a picture of a hawk's head (see her thread) for us too. I've copied it to the Editors Forum for them to view.

To complete the passerine, it looks like we may need a picture of an open wing - any offers?

Would it be possible, if anyone was working on anything, to post in here to say what they are planning.

TIA

D
 
That's a good idea, then we'll know what's done and on the boards....I'm doing a duck bill, a gull bill, and a pelican bill if it's needed.

What would really help is more detail of what the editors want specifically.

I'll tackle the wing, cause I need the practice. ;)
 
The hawk's head is great Colleen, give me a little time and I'll post a copy here of it labelled to show what we are trying to do.

A line drawing of an open wing with the feathers outlined but not coloured in would be great.
An open wing picture of a typical ducks wing would also help, it would enable us to label it to show the speculum.
 

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thanks Keith, is the level of detail ok I didn't do every thing clearly, ie the eye ring is a bit shadowed. If it is Ok I'll go ahead on the duck, I put in the eye too, maybe you don't want that, but since I had so much of the head, thought it was a more interesting painting. I'll start on a wing today
 
The hawk's head was very good Colleen, nicely placed with plenty of white space around it for the text. Being pin sharp with all the details isn't really an issue so long as there is somewhere I can place the point of an arrow to indicate the structure.
With the duck's head, would it be possible to have the the bird looking slightly towards us, ideally an aythya species as they have the dark nail at the tip of the bill which it would be good to identify for people.
 
With the duck's head, would it be possible to have the the bird looking slightly towards us, ideally an aythya species as they have the dark nail at the tip of the bill which it would be good to identify for people.

What is aythya?
although Im an experienced artist, I'm a complete novice with birds, having taken them up as subjects for only a couple of months. I'm going to email a pic I took yesterday and see if this is ok.
 
That's great Colleen, just the sort of view we can use. Shows the nail very well, that's the little black bit at the front of the bill
 
This sounds very interesting.Wish I could sketch!!!.Look forward to seeing some of the end products in Opus.A great idea,very good fodder for the ID forum.
 
Hi Keith, here is a duck bill, it doesn't have all the detail I saw, so I hope it is enough, I tried to leave room for the labels.

I'll try the wing tomorrow....not used to such tight rendering, but having fun with the challenge.
 

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Hi Delia

I've actually got a whole set of wader topography drawings which I use in my wader seminars. I attach a couple here to see if they're what you're after. If so, I can add more.

1. the open wing
2. the closed wing, showing how the flight feathers are largely obscured by the coverts
3. the closed wing with most of the coverts obscured by the scapulars and flank feathers

Dave
 

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Hi Colleen and Dave

Thanks so much.... they all look good to me, but I'll send Keith and the other Editors along as I'm by no means an expert at this.

D
 
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