ARTHUR BISHOP
Well-known member
Great sketches here John
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JTMB's Bird Art (3 Viewers)
- Thread starter JTMB
- Start date
JTMB
Well-known member
Thanks Gaby, Matt, Tim and Ken!
Well, after thinking I might successfully avoid the nasty cold/flu that has been going around this winter, I got hammered last Monday and was operating on very little energy for most of the week. I did manage a couple drawings while laying back in the recliner wondering if I would have enough energy to get up when the dogs needed to go outside. Here are two that I did over the last two evenings - probably about two hours in each. These are both 9 x 12 inches, graphite on Canson Mi Tientes pastel paper (smoother side). They are both done from photos I took over the last few years. The American Crow is on a medium gray mottled tone of paper - I liked the reference photo because the bird was mostly in bright light which showed plenty of feather detail rather than making the bird a big black blob. (Not that my rendering of the detail is all that accurate, mind you...!) The Blue-winged Teal is on an off-white paper. Blue-winged Teal are fairly difficult to find in our area, so I was pleased to get a nice profile shot of one from a hide built on a marshy pond owned by a friend of mine.
As always, critiques and advice are appreciated...!
Well, after thinking I might successfully avoid the nasty cold/flu that has been going around this winter, I got hammered last Monday and was operating on very little energy for most of the week. I did manage a couple drawings while laying back in the recliner wondering if I would have enough energy to get up when the dogs needed to go outside. Here are two that I did over the last two evenings - probably about two hours in each. These are both 9 x 12 inches, graphite on Canson Mi Tientes pastel paper (smoother side). They are both done from photos I took over the last few years. The American Crow is on a medium gray mottled tone of paper - I liked the reference photo because the bird was mostly in bright light which showed plenty of feather detail rather than making the bird a big black blob. (Not that my rendering of the detail is all that accurate, mind you...!) The Blue-winged Teal is on an off-white paper. Blue-winged Teal are fairly difficult to find in our area, so I was pleased to get a nice profile shot of one from a hide built on a marshy pond owned by a friend of mine.
As always, critiques and advice are appreciated...!
timwootton
Well-known member
Sorry to hear you've been under the weather, John - on the upside, it's given you a chance to make these superb pieces of graphite art. Really top quality stuff.
ARTHUR BISHOP
Well-known member
Hope you are back to your old self soon
solitaryVSong
Well-known member
Both have a nice sense of solidity to them John. My wife has been fighting off something here. I hope it's not the flu-like cold that I guess a lot of people on this coast have as well.
JTMB
Well-known member
Sharp-shinned Hawk
This afternoon, a Sharp-shinned Hawk came in on a strafing run through the yard, then landed on a neighbor's tree only thirty or forty feet away. It was snowing out (very late in the season for us, in fact we don't get much snow at all in a typical winter) and so it fluffed up its feathers and perch hunted for five or so minutes. I grabbed the sketchbook and did one sketch before the bird flew off after something (results unknown) - this is graphite in a 9 x 9 inch sketchbook. The head turned out ok, but the breast patterning...not so much. Still, some more good experience added to the sketching base.
This afternoon, a Sharp-shinned Hawk came in on a strafing run through the yard, then landed on a neighbor's tree only thirty or forty feet away. It was snowing out (very late in the season for us, in fact we don't get much snow at all in a typical winter) and so it fluffed up its feathers and perch hunted for five or so minutes. I grabbed the sketchbook and did one sketch before the bird flew off after something (results unknown) - this is graphite in a 9 x 9 inch sketchbook. The head turned out ok, but the breast patterning...not so much. Still, some more good experience added to the sketching base.
timwootton
Well-known member
From life, John? - well it's a real cracker, in my opinion. The intensity of the raptor stare is caught perfectly.
solitaryVSong
Well-known member
Nice drawing, esp. of the head John. We've had alternating Cooper's and Sharp-shins in our back yard much of this winter. Just yesterday a young Sharpie was here and I debated setting up the scope and tripod for a sketch. Of course he was gone before I could come to a decision.
JTMB
Well-known member
Thanks Tim, Mike and Ken! I was lucky with this guy - he probably perched longer than any accipiters I've had in the yard previously, and was so close that he completely filled the scope's field of view. I thought maybe he had eaten recently, but it was hard to tell how full the crop was with his feathers fluffed up. And he moved his head frequently and actively enough that it appeared he was still hunting. By the way, we have 6 inches of snow on the ground now, and up to 8 inches more forecast for this afternoon and evening - pretty, but annoying, having grown up with the stuff and thinking I'd mostly left it behind when we moved out here. Interestingly, even though I stomped down a couple areas in the snow this morning and put out a lot of seed, no birds are currently taking advantage of it. I don't know whether it's that they're so well fed by me on a regular basis that they don't need to be out - :-O - or that they figure they stand out too much against the white snow for the resident accipiters.
JTMB
Well-known member
Deschutes River Canyon Cliffs and Blue-winged Teal
Thanks, Nick!
Here are two more just completed. The first is a landscape in oil, 18 x 24 inches that is currently in the 'is it done' aging period. The landscape is along the Deschutes River in central Oregon. I am thinking about adding a soaring Golden Eagle in the image, but not sure whether to attempt it here, or do another version of the picture with the eagle more integrally planned into it from the start.
The second one is 10 1/4 x 14 inches watercolor of the Blue-winged Teal that I did a graphite sketch of earlier. This one wasn't very successful, having a number of issues, but at least it is identifiable as to the species...! :-O
Thanks, Nick!
Here are two more just completed. The first is a landscape in oil, 18 x 24 inches that is currently in the 'is it done' aging period. The landscape is along the Deschutes River in central Oregon. I am thinking about adding a soaring Golden Eagle in the image, but not sure whether to attempt it here, or do another version of the picture with the eagle more integrally planned into it from the start.
The second one is 10 1/4 x 14 inches watercolor of the Blue-winged Teal that I did a graphite sketch of earlier. This one wasn't very successful, having a number of issues, but at least it is identifiable as to the species...! :-O
timwootton
Well-known member
Incredible landscape, John - really like this a lot! Put the bird in - it's in oils and you can scrub it out if you don't lke it. Don't fear the creative process.
Have you posted this on WC also?
Have you posted this on WC also?
I'll give the eagle a shot. And yes, this is posted on WC, in the landscape and southwestern forums.
