From the sketchbook... (1 Viewer)

[buzzard12]

Excellent fieldwork Alan. I'm off to burn my sketchbook...

Mike

I'll send you a million dollars Mike, you should burn that instead....

 

[timwootton]

Now this is what top qulity fieldwork does; it allows the viewer to share oin the excitement and thrill of seeing real birds in the field, the fact that it's a spanking rarity adds that unique element and, because the artist is having to look just that bit more closely for details which would be skimmed over with 'common' birds, we get a really intimate encounter. Seeing these is almost as good as being there at the time - very lovely work indeed.
ps - just a tip about your blue cast on the drawings - 'cos they're monochrome, you can pop them into Photoshop and select 'greyscale' for your colour settings. Paper turns grey!

 

[Woody]

Took the liberty Alan, hope you don't mind.

Mike

 

[Andrew H]

Great field sketch.........
Mike, if your burning, Ill call the fire brigade

 

[buzzard12]

Took the liberty Alan, hope you don't mind.

Mike

Dont mind at all Mike, thanks! Good to know I can do this and looks well. thanks for the heads up Tim..

 

[buzzard12]

Got some nice sun yesterday and used it to photo my latest, the Great Grey Shrike canvas, rather small at 14x12inches. Pallete knife on the background, somehow wanted to avoid too much detail on the bird as a result. Added some twigs to the right side to add a little balance and echo the birds shape in the end.
Have added a much better image of the Guillemot canvas with true colour rendition, not too fond of the earlier posted image...

 

[buzzard12]

Almost feel spoiled at this stage. Unbelievably, a Black Throated Thrush was found here in Stockholm on Sunday evening. Caught up with it Monday, the bird feeding under a bird table on apples and titbits. Slightly ridiculous to have two lifers since the turn of the year, many Octobers have passed by without me seeing that! Anyhow, the bird is a first winter plumage female, a lovely bird and showing really well. Some sketches here and a collection on mug shots on the blog, as well aa a videograb off hte A95 for posterity.

 

[nickderry]

Lucky you! I'm trying to work out how you manage to take in so much whilst watching a bird - and put it to paper so convincingly. I'm going to start catching thrushes and cutting off their tertials - they've got to be the worst to draw!

The guillemot is a gem, nice to see it in better light, the shrike is a very nice piece of work too, you must have boundless imagination to paint a bird that clearly doesn't exist!

 

[timwootton]

Terrific fieldwork, yet again, Alan - and I'm with Nick; just amazing how much information you get down whilst the hands are shaking with excitement. Splendid bird (just of to your blog for a squint) and talk about the luck o' the Oirish!!!
Thanks for the re-post of the guille - still a very beautiful painting, just can see it a tad better now. GGS sits beautifully balanced there and I approve of the knife. Be interesting to see you take that technique right the way through a painting.
Sorry Nick, but (unlike lesserspots) GGshrikes are actually real birds. (The last one I saw was swimming around the bay with some of my tame tysties )

 

[pinussen]

Greate sketches as usual!

Saw this one myself this morning just a few metres from me munching on apples.

 

[buzzard12]

Lucky you! I'm trying to work out how you manage to take in so much whilst watching a bird - and put it to paper so convincingly. I'm going to start catching thrushes and cutting off their tertials - they've got to be the worst to draw!

At work now, obviously grafting away

Will post some other bits tomorrow, literally! Usually when I am lucky enough to have a species in front of me I do a page or two of bits, that is little sections of the bird, often things like primary projection, greater coverts, any diagnostic marks relevant to the species, head details, bill detail. Have not posted a lot of that stuff, as it often is something of a mess, though I find it helps me massively.
Usually I watch the bird for perhaps 20 mins. or so, jotting these bits down. It helps me get started, which is a big deal for me as I often used to wait until I had a cooperative subject, often ending up with little done, if anything at the end of the day. It starts me off in a relaxing way, I can still enjoy looking at the bird, not stressing if it moves about a lot, changes posture, shape etc., because all I am doing is taking little snapshots of the bird as I am running my eyes over the bird, as a feature is seen it gets jotted down, just that part, so there is no need to worry about scale in relation to a full sketch of the bird in its entirety. It's become routine for me now over the years, probably a natural progression from early days out sketching when I often came home with page upon page of these bits of birds. I still do it to a degree and it means that when I move on to tackling sketches of the whole bird after a while I am ahead of myself in a way, its easier to draw the outline if I dont have to worry about the details, or rather if I have already dealt with the details first, making it easier to drop them in at a glance, having already taken them in. Not only that, often the shorthand sketches of bits of detail are hugely valuable later when doing a more developed piece, I often find myself going back to them, in fact I am often really kicking myself if for some reason I have not taken enough time to do enough of them and missed out on some form of detail....
Anyhow, break just over! Rather than get bogged down will post a few bits over the next day or two, pictures prescribe so much better than written explanations..

 

[Woody]

That's not a bad crack at explanation though Alan, thank you. Wonderful fieldwork as always (wonderful bird too).

Mike

 

[nickderry]

well your method obviously works, and it is the method that is repeatedly prescribed for good sketching. One thing that often happens in my sketches is I go for the whole thing too soon (straightaway usually - oh the impatience!) and then I find I have parts of the bird that look good, but they don't all sit together properly - then I go and cut the sketch into parts with heavy lines to show what's right. Looking forward to seeing the bits, though the finished result is the most admirable, it's the starting point that is the most educational.

 

[timwootton]

That's how Eric describes fieldwork, too.
Hmmm - this may get parphrased and re-used in some other context (with the author's permission, of course).

 

[jomo]

Always a treat, Alan! And an insightful explanation of your methods as well. I haven't had a lifer in awhile, so thanks for letting me live vicariously through your phenomenal work!

 

[buzzard12]

Hi there Jomo, just been admiring your lovely Snow Buntings on your thread, made my morning. Hope a lifer isnt too far of for you there...

Bits here, its a mess, but there a bird in there somewhere! A page of Yellow Browed Bunting and another of Black Throated Thrush.
Please note the orderly way its all slapped down with a total disregard to scale

 

[timwootton]

Fantastic! Great insight into the artist at work.

 

[nickderry]

Brilliant! I was hoping for something a little more shabby, but these are a lot better than that. It's like a jigsaw, you find all the right pieces, and then put them together later.

 

[Woody]

Thanks Alan, great to see the madness in your method!

Mike

 

[jomo]

There it is -- proof that you do indeed have a settling in period, and don't just sit yourself down and casually lay out one of those sure, steady, bang-on sketches on the spot! Splendid observation here.