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Sketches from Andrew Ellis (1 Viewer)

Definitely magic..!!

I can feel the speed and power in those falcons....and for that i give you a 'wow'....[make it 2 'wows']....! :t:
 
Lapwings and peregrines now there's a man after my own heart! Beautiful and inspiring work.

Has anyone got a match? I'm off to burn my sketchbooks...

Mike
 
Hi Andy,
Your superbly rendered flight sketches are really inspirational. As I'm a relative newcomer to bird art I've bothered everyone one here re materials and techniques etc. Are you using a particular pencil and paper? Also are the flight sketches made using bins, scope or both? I assume its taken years of practice to achieve this level of drawing, but would you know if the technique of blinking and 'burning' the image of the bird on the retina is of any use for nailing flying birds? I guess it's pure observation otherwise.

Apologies for the interrogation, but this is fantastic stuff.


Cheers

Russ

Russ, thank you for the praise!! Well materials ? nothing special , Just Stiletto pencil and and a bog standard ringbound A4 sketch pad. I get them from Service Point a shop here in Plymouth. The Paper is acid free and Chlorine free. The work in my Falconry diary is done on a Paper Blanks hard bound and has a Old Moroccan leather design cover. I would love to find some really nice proper leather bound sketch books with quality Hot pressed
fine paper in them but it just does not seem the two are available together:-C

On the subject of Drawing flight studies, Well sometimes I use bino's if things
are far off but if not with the naked eye. I have allot of experience with falcons so they are always the better ones . But at the end of the day its all about practice and understanding bird flight in general. I would not be adverse to advising people to take snaps with their cameras as well and use them to learn about the wing shapes of certain birds. I have used camera shots that I have taken at a distance before but you have to learn not to be a slave to the camera it will stifle your interpretation . And to be honest some subjects are just so hard to capture in flight . For example I get asked to do a few Sporting paintings and trying to capture a speeding grouse within a few seconds as it whizzes past is just ridiculously hard. But with seeing allot of them and practice, practice ,practice, the sketches improve and improve and improve. Ultimately its all about understanding your subject. I would never be as good as say Tim at Skuas, Terns etc because I just don't get to see them as much as he does. The birds I find the hardest to sketch in the field will always be the Passerines especially the more secretive ones. But that will not stop me from having a go and trying to learn. I've never done the retina thing. Just watch for a bit then try and absorb a particular shape then get it down as fast as I can! You will find that some positions never get completed . Don't worry just start another then you may get to see the same position occur again so ad to the one that was already started.

Hope that all made sense. Bottom line is just doing it and try different approaches with camera , without, with binos with scopes your ability will improve. When I look back at my early stiffled attempts I cringe,

Thanks again Andy
 
Unadulterated magic - simply uplifting to see. (Looks like Megan's on the right path now mate! - well done with her.)

HI Tim , thanks mate . Megan is doing great but the plan to release her has run aground so to speak. she started showing signs of imprinting and there fore becomes unreleasable. She may not breed with wild Peregrines and may get herself into trouble so its no longer an option. I will continue to fly her and she will lead a very nice life . I know its not the same as her being in the wild but the more of these birds i get to rehabilitate the more you see that its so hard to get them back once they have lost their opportunity. They get left behind developmentally and many end up dead. She is just one of the 75% that don't make it to breeding age. If you can release them as quickly as possible they stand a fair chance but if they are in captivity for an extended period they start to develop problems because of circumstances.

Thanks again for your praise
 
Andy,
Many thanks for these tips. I hope to while away many hours trying to fly like the birds this summer. No I won't be hang-gliding or sky diving, though.

Keep up the fabulous work.

Russ
 
Andy some how missed the last two groups....heartmelting, if I was a Victorian lady I'd be swooning.....and thanks for some of the tips, you falconers have a true advantage of really seeing the birds up close. Yesterday I got a glimpse of a white tailed kite up close, as I was asked to put on a restraining band so she could be force fed( a young one brought to the Bird Rescue where I volunteer.)

There is simply nothing like being that close to a bird of prey, and making eye contact with that power.... your drawings have some of that feeling, no art will ever really capture it...still we must keep trying..
 
Andy,
Many thanks for these tips. I hope to while away many hours trying to fly like the birds this summer. No I won't be hang-gliding or sky diving, though.

Keep up the fabulous work.

Russ

Russ, no problem with the advice, everyone is different though and others may not do as I do . I hope it's just helped in some way. My heart. Is always flying with them.
 
Andy some how missed the last two groups....heartmelting, if I was a Victorian lady I'd be swooning.....and thanks for some of the tips, you falconers have a true advantage of really seeing the birds up close. Yesterday I got a glimpse of a white tailed kite up close, as I was asked to put on a restraining band so she could be force fed( a young one brought to the Bird Rescue where I volunteer.)

There is simply nothing like being that close to a bird of prey, and making eye contact with that power.... your drawings have some of that feeling, no art will ever really capture it...still we must keep trying..

Colleen, there is nothing that comes close for me being with or around these magnificent creatures. Even the ones. That I have trained that are really tame have detatched almost sacred knowingness if that's a word even!? They have a quality of character nothing else has. Capturing, understanding and experiencing this has touched my life in so many ways. When painting them I get to see something of that and flying them I almost feel I'm with them up there. I love it , can't get enough of it . If any small part of that comes across in my art then I'm succeeding. Thankyou for your comments
 
Colleen, there is nothing that comes close for me being with or around these magnificent creatures. Even the ones. That I have trained that are really tame have detatched almost sacred knowingness if that's a word even!? They have a quality of character nothing else has. Capturing, understanding and experiencing this has touched my life in so many ways. When painting them I get to see something of that and flying them I almost feel I'm with them up there. I love it , can't get enough of it . If any small part of that comes across in my art then I'm succeeding. Thankyou for your comments
Bravo! :t:
 
Here is a piece i did for coleens thread but thought I'd put up here as its such a different approach but I enjoyed the freedom of it.
 

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Here is a piece i did for coleens thread but thought I'd put up here as its such a different approach but I enjoyed the freedom of it.
Now - you really do know how to p!ss me off, don't you! Look at that! - light, form, life and mood and just because you had a few b100dy minutes spare!! Superb.
 
:-O Not trying to pEE you off Tim, Honest!! I just thought Coleen's thread warranted some support. I love the Idea and I need to loosen up a bitB :)
 
yes superb - the only thing wrong with the hobbies is that they need to be waved around a bit - I was watching a pair hunting on Sunday and no way did I manage to see these shapes - but I know that they are exactly as you've drawn them. Action and accuracy at an astonishingly high level.
 
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