Woody
Well-known member
Indeed.
Your style of sketching always seems very confident to me, there's none of the hesitancy that I see in my own sketching.
Mike
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Recent sketches (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter RussB
- Start date
Indeed.
Your style of sketching always seems very confident to me, there's none of the hesitancy that I see in my own sketching.
Mike
RussB
Going for Gold
Cheers all,
The wader theme continues... Sketches of a a juvenile Red Knot down at Old Moor. Stranded 80 odd miles inland and being no fan of long drives I have to make the most of any coastal species that turns up, so this was a sketching tick. Great shapes, these! I quickly began to appreciate that barrell-like body and small head. A lovely angularity to it, too. Comparing, as I always do, to field work of the creme de la creme ie Busby, Wooton et al, the birds are captured with just the minimal amount of line and tone. I'm finding, with constant practice, I can get it 'right' one in about 20 attempts! These sketches are from around 2.5 hours of more or less constant observation - it's no wonder folk take up photography!
A slight improvement on my Charadriiformes, anyway!
The wader theme continues... Sketches of a a juvenile Red Knot down at Old Moor. Stranded 80 odd miles inland and being no fan of long drives I have to make the most of any coastal species that turns up, so this was a sketching tick. Great shapes, these! I quickly began to appreciate that barrell-like body and small head. A lovely angularity to it, too. Comparing, as I always do, to field work of the creme de la creme ie Busby, Wooton et al, the birds are captured with just the minimal amount of line and tone. I'm finding, with constant practice, I can get it 'right' one in about 20 attempts! These sketches are from around 2.5 hours of more or less constant observation - it's no wonder folk take up photography!
A slight improvement on my Charadriiformes, anyway!
Attachments
solitaryVSong
Well-known member
timwootton
Well-known member
For sure!
mattybohan
Well-known member
an excellent series!
phil baber
Clipped Wing
Love the wader studies Russ!
RussB
Going for Gold
Cheers all,
Continuing with waders: common sandpipers, Greenshank, preening lappies and Ruff. I've ben spending quite a bit of time getting familiar with Ruff. What a quirky wader they are! Small head, fat body, longish neck with a slight 'kink' in certain postures. Waders are great to sketch but they're definitely a species I've got to 'get into' through constant observation and sketching - the only way! The old problem of leg placement seems to be slowly being resolved, which is encouraging.
Continuing with waders: common sandpipers, Greenshank, preening lappies and Ruff. I've ben spending quite a bit of time getting familiar with Ruff. What a quirky wader they are! Small head, fat body, longish neck with a slight 'kink' in certain postures. Waders are great to sketch but they're definitely a species I've got to 'get into' through constant observation and sketching - the only way! The old problem of leg placement seems to be slowly being resolved, which is encouraging.
Attachments
solitaryVSong
Well-known member
Exactly my thought Russ. These are all becoming very animated and lifelike, from head to toe.
phil baber
Clipped Wing
This is where you excel Russ!
Purity of capture! Needs no embellishment ever. So superb and instructional.
Always a BIG fan! I love it when you work so hard to produce the truth. Many can learn a lot from your work. Myself included...
Purity of capture! Needs no embellishment ever. So superb and instructional.
Always a BIG fan! I love it when you work so hard to produce the truth. Many can learn a lot from your work. Myself included...
Rahul Parekh
Well-known member
Beautiful sketchbook...lovely to see birds in action. You've captured the activities so well. love it 
RussB
Going for Gold
Many thanks.
Five more b and w's. I'm learning what watercolour can do so I've tried to illustrate four species here with 'complex' plumage patterns. I'm getting more confident with the 'wet in wet' technique, which seems to be the best way of rendering mottling, bars, vermiculations, notches and streaks etc. Does anyone agree? I know there's the 'dry brush' technique, to.
Cormorant, Whimbrel, 1st winter Great black-backed Gull, Pectoral Sandpiper and female Common Scoter.
A no doubt easy question for you watercolourists here: before I take the plunge with field painting, what is the minimum number of colours I'd need in the box? I understand 6 will do, but does more make it easier? I'm under no illusion how much of a steep learning curve this will be. I know there are countless books (yawn, zzzz) with advice on colour wheels etc, etc but any advice would be most appreciated.
Cheers
Russ
Five more b and w's. I'm learning what watercolour can do so I've tried to illustrate four species here with 'complex' plumage patterns. I'm getting more confident with the 'wet in wet' technique, which seems to be the best way of rendering mottling, bars, vermiculations, notches and streaks etc. Does anyone agree? I know there's the 'dry brush' technique, to.
Cormorant, Whimbrel, 1st winter Great black-backed Gull, Pectoral Sandpiper and female Common Scoter.
A no doubt easy question for you watercolourists here: before I take the plunge with field painting, what is the minimum number of colours I'd need in the box? I understand 6 will do, but does more make it easier? I'm under no illusion how much of a steep learning curve this will be. I know there are countless books (yawn, zzzz) with advice on colour wheels etc, etc but any advice would be most appreciated.
Cheers
Russ
Attachments
Strandman
Well-known member
hello there- defnitely a progression to be seen if you thumb back through the work on this page, compared to previous
I think it is because things are tied together more, with more mid-tones linking up the areas where you have added in some detail, some dark
so you know the way to go
I used a large gone-wrong wet-paint Curlew painting to light the fire last night, but it turned out to be so sodden and overdone that it didn't even perform that task satisfactorily
so you are not the only one confronting a winter of experimentation
resparza
Well-known member
I'm also pretty new with watercolour, and I've only been using this pocket watercolour set:
http://www.artsupplies.co.uk/item-cotman-pocket-plus.htm
I like it because it's very small and convenient to carry in the field. I'm having a lot of fun trying to get familiar with watercolours. Good luck!
http://www.artsupplies.co.uk/item-cotman-pocket-plus.htm
I like it because it's very small and convenient to carry in the field. I'm having a lot of fun trying to get familiar with watercolours. Good luck!
