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Wilde about Bird Art (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter deborah4
- Start date
timwootton
Well-known member
Outstanding fieldwork Deborah. The colour sketches are brilliantly lively and the pencil sheet is such a wonderful composition. Top class.
ARTHUR BISHOP
Well-known member
This is super work esp. the Ibis
deborah4
Well-known member
WOW right back!! I didn't expect that reaction from all of you - many thanks for the kind comments - I'll try and slide down the slope gently from here on
deborah4
Well-known member
EGRETS and PELICANS
So continuing with a half-hearted attempt at imparting some info from my trip, the present day Lake Kerkini (made so by a large dam at Sidirokastro controlling the flow of water from the Strymon River) forms part of the wetland marshlands of the river's floodplain. In fact the Greek authorities are controlling the levels of the Lake so effectively, they've drowned half the trees and more or less created a free for all breeding colony of Gt Cormorants and Pygmy Cormorants, which being great tree roosters and producers of scat, are currently in the process of killing the rest of the trees and providing unhealthy competition for the other species also reliant on the Lake's fish but that's bye and bye. It's a Ramsar Wetland and rightly so. Host to over 227 species of birds in the area including some 500 plus Pelicans which come to feed daily on the Lake. In addition to White Pelican, Greece also provides habitat for some 6-7% of the World's population of Dalmatian Pelicans - status 'vulnerable' in Europe. Anyway ..... blah blah.
I regularly saw lots of GW Egret, Purple Heron, Squacco Heron, Little Bittern, Night Heron, Grey Heron, Spoonbill, Little Egret ... loads of crappy sketches of these twisty, hunchy, stretchy, off-with-their-heads kind of dagger-billed nightmares - 'Scuse the messiness, only had one sketch book and started to re-use some pages towards the end of the fortnight - these really tested me! (The strange mix of Pelican bills and Pygmies was an idea I sketched out for a painting based on a feeding frenzy I witnessed a few days before I returned (A painting which will probably never actually be a painting knowing me)
So continuing with a half-hearted attempt at imparting some info from my trip, the present day Lake Kerkini (made so by a large dam at Sidirokastro controlling the flow of water from the Strymon River) forms part of the wetland marshlands of the river's floodplain. In fact the Greek authorities are controlling the levels of the Lake so effectively, they've drowned half the trees and more or less created a free for all breeding colony of Gt Cormorants and Pygmy Cormorants, which being great tree roosters and producers of scat, are currently in the process of killing the rest of the trees and providing unhealthy competition for the other species also reliant on the Lake's fish but that's bye and bye. It's a Ramsar Wetland and rightly so. Host to over 227 species of birds in the area including some 500 plus Pelicans which come to feed daily on the Lake. In addition to White Pelican, Greece also provides habitat for some 6-7% of the World's population of Dalmatian Pelicans - status 'vulnerable' in Europe. Anyway ..... blah blah.
I regularly saw lots of GW Egret, Purple Heron, Squacco Heron, Little Bittern, Night Heron, Grey Heron, Spoonbill, Little Egret ... loads of crappy sketches of these twisty, hunchy, stretchy, off-with-their-heads kind of dagger-billed nightmares - 'Scuse the messiness, only had one sketch book and started to re-use some pages towards the end of the fortnight - these really tested me! (The strange mix of Pelican bills and Pygmies was an idea I sketched out for a painting based on a feeding frenzy I witnessed a few days before I returned (A painting which will probably never actually be a painting knowing me)
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kittykat23uk
Well-known member
I love all your sketches Deborah, but the spoonbill is my favourite! :t:
deborah4
Well-known member
Thanks both of you and thanks Jomo and Coleen who commented earlier - I've just about lost my enthusiasm for this little project now - it's taken hours to go through my sketches and try and pick out some fit for public consumption, then manfully struggle with my scanner which does not like graphite or thick sketchbooks - open lid, one hand on the mouse, one hand holding black cloth over glass - go figure! Not much left of the field work in the sketchbook anyway so I'll finish with these (the colour on the woodchat was added later using collins for reference!): If I do actually get round to making something of any of the stuff I've posted here, I'll add it in time. (Thanks again everyone who commented earlier in the thread, it obviously all went south after that!). I'll probably post a list of species or something in the vacations forum - not sure there was too much interest here for the background stuff!
(Ps KittyKat - I found a set of 26 oil pastels in a charity shop yesterday while popping out with a friend for a coffee. Hadn't used them since I was a kid but for £3 for a brand new set, I wasn't complaining. Now I am, was up half the night trying to do a pastel composition from one of my fieldnotes of a Squacco - good grief what a disaster and I thought water colour was hard! Nice garish colours though! (if you ignore the muddy tones and the lack of effort put into actually drawing the correct shape etc)
(Ps KittyKat - I found a set of 26 oil pastels in a charity shop yesterday while popping out with a friend for a coffee. Hadn't used them since I was a kid but for £3 for a brand new set, I wasn't complaining. Now I am, was up half the night trying to do a pastel composition from one of my fieldnotes of a Squacco - good grief what a disaster and I thought water colour was hard! Nice garish colours though! (if you ignore the muddy tones and the lack of effort put into actually drawing the correct shape etc)
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deborah4
Well-known member
Lol, I couldn't resist it! A pastel sketch from my fieldnotes done last night - bit amateurish but first time of trying to create a pastel comp and first time for using pastels for over 25 years!. (The Squacco doesn't count, it was binned!)
Actually, I quite like the real intensity of colour you can get with pastels and it is in fact easier to control than water colour.... anyway cheered me up today.
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nickderry
C'est pas ma faute, je suis anglais.
Love the childlike playfulness and vibrancy here, just what bee eaters are all about - here's another vote for you to do something with your pelicans and pygmies - it stands as a great sketch already - but would love to see some sort of 'big' piece come from it - mmm, collaged pelican feathers, wax resist throat pouches - a veritable artistic playground.
Your G W Egrets are just perfect - angular elegance! (try saying that over and over!)
Your G W Egrets are just perfect - angular elegance! (try saying that over and over!)
deborah4
Well-known member
Thanks for your comments Mike and Nick - you sent my mind reeling with images of white tissue paper Nick!! I used to do collages years ago with tissue paper ... well loo paper 'dyed' in water colour .... covered my front window in the flat I was living in when at art college with pieces of coloured toilet paper one time just so I could see the light shining through it .... neighbours complained so had to take them down ... got a bit carried away with it.
deborah4
Well-known member
Great tip C, thanks!
Not sure why I'm bashing out water colours at 3'stupid'O'clock in the morning - hey ho - working during the day, so it's a funny when ever ... even funnier trying to take flash photos with a fatigue induced shake.
(Not sure why I slipped the Iceland in, probably cos I quite like it - one I found in Sussex back in January - others from Greece sketches - all saved in my work folder by mistake! duh)
Not sure why I'm bashing out water colours at 3'stupid'O'clock in the morning - hey ho - working during the day, so it's a funny when ever ... even funnier trying to take flash photos with a fatigue induced shake.
(Not sure why I slipped the Iceland in, probably cos I quite like it - one I found in Sussex back in January - others from Greece sketches - all saved in my work folder by mistake! duh)
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ARTHUR BISHOP
Well-known member
lovely work Deborah and superb water colours
