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Wings Over Winecountry, Colleen's place (1 Viewer)

They're getting harder for two reasons;
1 - your knowledge and understanding of the birds is increasing and your drawing is taking a little time to catch up with what you know - and
2 - your own self-criticism and expectation levels are very high.
Not every drawing in every sketchbok will be a 'good' one so don't berate yourself for ones that don't work quite so well. Sketchbooks aren't about making beautiful drawings - they're your personal life contact with your suject; a place to contemplate, explore and discover.
FWIW - these drawings are quite lovely, anyway. Keep on.
 
Mike, the rubbish drawings are in the trash...these are the best ones, the others were indistinguishable from random marks of a 3 year old.

Ed compared to me just about everyone here is an expert, at least as far as bird knowledge goes...maybe I should start a thread on wings, if there isn't one, looks like I'm going to be doing the research anyway.

Tim HA, you're one to say sketchbooks are not about "making beautiful drawings" when yours are amazing examples of just that! :D
Really I wasn't perplexed over that so much as I can't find lines to explain the forms as I've been able to do with the other birds....Maybe it's because that neck is just so strange, and can take so many forms when folded up, and with the bins I can't really see how it happens....Since they are getting better slowly I'll just keep drawing

I'd love to see some egret sketchbook drawings from others here, I think it will help me to do my own...

Every time I start a new bird, it's like starting all over again.
 
I think the part most confusing to me is the neck, so I've done a lot of studies k, a few from the field, mostly from my photos, part of this I think is because I'm looking up from such a steep angle , the ground to the tree about 35' up, that I'm seeing from underneath and drawing mostly as tho it's a side angle.

I did see there is a difference in how the neck flexes, stiffer at the bottom, and makes a bump frequently in one place. I have a new idea for a painting started in my mind, so later today I'll post a study.

Even tho the drawings are ok, I can still feel in my hand I don't have it yet. a certain lack of confidence in the mark shows.
 

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You must never, ever decide that what you draw is rubbish - the response you draw is THE most important thing in this game - even if you feel it doesn't quite sum up what you saw, it is still the most honest and spontaneous response made to the living bird, and whether or not it conveys all you want to show in the bird, somewhere in the drawing is just a dash of the living essence of what you're trying to draw.

But then saying thatn we all set the bar higher than what we'll ever achieve - better to scrape it than not to jump at all though.

These neck studies are phenomenal by the way!!
 
the response you draw is THE most important thing in this game - even if you feel it doesn't quite sum up what you saw, it is still the most honest and spontaneous response made to the living bird,
Nick, thank you so much for saying this to me, it changes everything and I think it's true.

That said, I'm not sure the sketch is as important as some invisible something that happens inside the creative self when the sketch is done, and the marks are just the bare tracks left over. Still we all love beautiful sketches don't we!

Yesterday at the tree, I began to wonder what the birds would look like in moonlight, I've done several moonlight paintings of animals I did long studies of, horses and cheetah. I've also spent many hours observing the moonlight, with the help of a nice white and black horse who used to live in the pasture next to my cottage. I have not by any means figured it out. I've also read a few passages from other artists about how they do it. One of them paints the animal in daylight colors and just puts a indigo glaze over it.

I haven't done a wip here, so thought this might make a good one. I got this stunning view of one of the last adults in breeding plumage yesterday it was at the tip top of the tree against a blue sky...knocked me over....So I put the photo in photoshop and messed around, I do a lot of prelim work this way any more, lets me do a lot trials quickly to see, sort of virtual thumbnails.

Here is the watercolor study I did for the neck, and the pastel about 1/2 way done. Lower dark blue is the color of the paper I'm using... I think the neck studies really helped me work out that twisting tube, which I'm getting with warm and cool values. Have no idea how I'm going to get the veils of breeding plumes, I have a few. One of them was a gift yesterday as I was thinking about this work one nice fresh one came floating down....do you think it was a hint?|^|
 

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sorry the pastel didn't get attached somehow


9x12 on colorfix paper. soft pastels and pastel pencils
 

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Don't undersell yourself Colleen, those egret necks are real tricky and you're getting them nailed by observation and graft, excellent stuff. The watercolour just wants a frame and I can see the pastel is going to be a beauty too.

Mike
 
those egret necks are real tricky
Mike

you cant even imagine how tricky, take a look at this child...who suddenly became headless:-O not sure an adult could do it,but the kid did...you can just see the bill tip so try to imagine where his head is....It was just past sunset and getting cooler, but really this did me in completely, laughed so hard...

It's getting close to full moon I hope to go see the tree by moonlight.
 

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They're amazing aren't they! I get loads of little egrets round here and their necks defeat me most of the time.

Mike
 
notwithstanding Nick's recent comment about "there are no rubbish drawings" ...here are my first flight sketches...I fail to see how these are going to result in some coherent drawing of egrets in flight...:-O I think I'll have to try the slide show method of one of the artists here...their wings when full open are SO huge....anyone who has a method of capturing flight HELLLLLP please...
 

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very left of the page - the one taking off with its back to you - there's a successful scribble - just lines and angles, exactly what you need to see first to paint a bird convincingly with poise and balance.
 
thanks Nick gives me hope,...I'm sure glad I didn't start with egrets, I would have just given up and gone back to mammals....still don't you think I need a bit more, like wings or something:)
 
thanks Nick gives me hope,...I'm sure glad I didn't start with egrets, I would have just given up and gone back to mammals....still don't you think I need a bit more, like wings or something:)

If you want to produce something like a picture, an aesthetically pleasing end result, then yes, a bit more would perhaps be a good idea - but this is your sketchbook - the place where you record what you see and learn about birds, and here, you learned what angles were on the bird at this point, I doubt that had you been trying to see too much, you would have been able to record this important detail. The essence of the bird is not in its detail - you can create tension and movement with stick figures, once that's there, detail can be added.
 
Succinctly put once again Nick.
Colleen - The scribbles all together actually do read very well as they move and lift themselves across the page. I think for a spread of real first-hand observations, this has bundles of energy and a fair bit of insight.
Nothing easy about portraying the living bird - and the least easy is probably convincing flight studies.
 
OK I see what you mean Nick and Tim, I do see with more observation I can add some detail to it, but don't think I can ever see what the camera freezes, maybe cause these are short flights tree top to tree top....and their wings are a very different shape and in proportion to the body very big, and wide....so I'm doing studies from my shots to work then go back to live work with some shapes to work with.

thanks so much for your comments here
 
flight sketches of egrets, from my photos, and a sketch of how they become headless they hunch an fold the neck, turn the head to one side, and pull the wing wrist over the eyes..and stand on one leg.

and the finish of the pastel, didn't quite get the light, but got a convincing neck, I think anyway..

the writing on the sketch, is a recipe for lime shrimp lettuce wraps
not bird observations, :king:
 

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