timwootton
Well-known member
Brilliant starling sketches and the crouching snipe is a beauty too. Excellent stuff - have a great trip to Arthur-land - nice and relaxing, toe in the sea and birds on the shore. See ya!
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From Woody's 2007 sketchbook (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Woody
- Start date
ARTHUR BISHOP
Well-known member
Brilliant sketches Woody , don't forget your passport . Which area of this lovely County is going in your sketch book. Enjoy your stay.
Woody
Well-known member
Just north of Norwich in athe village of Spixworth. I'll be staying on a 700 acre organic farm with free run of the place. I've stayed there for the past three years and absolutely love the place. I'm there for a week and, if the last three years are anything to go by, I probably won't go far from the farm itself. I'm looking forward to kingfishers, barn owls, sparrowhawks, kestrels, ducks of various types, swallows, martins, foxes, hares, bats, frogs, dragonflies, etc., etc., etc. It's like having a private reserve for a whole week.
Woody
ARTHUR BISHOP
Well-known member
One of my sisters lived in Spixworth for a few years . I hope you have another good year in Broadland District and looking forward to the Sketches.
Arthur
Arthur
Andrew Ellis
Well-known member
Woody, those snipe are cracking!! have a good one in Norfolk.
And I wish I'd been there to see the grin. always makes my heart lift
when I see that crossbow in the sky.
And I wish I'd been there to see the grin. always makes my heart lift
when I see that crossbow in the sky.
deborah4
Well-known member
I know what you mean Woody! Strangely enough, it's that sort of experience that makes me want to produce a painting 'depicting the story', whereas the sketches seem more like practicing getting the gizz right ... Oh to combine the two! Look forward to more of the Merlin - lovely sketch.
Mouldy
skywatcher, dragonhunter
Sounds like heaven, make the most of it. No doubt we will see your enjoyment in the resultant sketches.
Zac Hinchcliffe
Time spent wishing is time wasted!
I really like the snipe sketches, I haven't even attempted to try snipe yet, let alone preening birds!
Woody
Well-known member
Well, I'm back! After a week in Norfolk in the p*ssing rain and gale force gusty winds the weather this last week has felt positively tropical!
I'll work on scanning some of the results of the Norfolk trip soon but in the meantime here's a couple from today at Elmley.
Finally! A perched hobby, not one shooting past at stupid speed!
And a sleepy young heron. These sketches illustrate clearly the difference between subjects at fairly close range and those at quite a distance.
Woody
I'll work on scanning some of the results of the Norfolk trip soon but in the meantime here's a couple from today at Elmley.
Finally! A perched hobby, not one shooting past at stupid speed!
And a sleepy young heron. These sketches illustrate clearly the difference between subjects at fairly close range and those at quite a distance.
Woody
Attachments
Andrew Ellis
Well-known member
woody, love the Hobby. and yes its so good to see them sat
sometimes but for me its when they are in hunting mode
that they get exciting! Good to see you back and looking forward
to seeing the results of your break.
sometimes but for me its when they are in hunting mode
that they get exciting! Good to see you back and looking forward
to seeing the results of your break.
Woody
Well-known member
Thanks both.
Those hobbies had been giving me the run around all bl**dy morning! Elmley is great for them but actually watching them hunt is real tricky! They have such a large area to work that they always seem to be off to a different bit, miles away, the instant you get the pad out! I'm persevering though, I'll be off out again tomorrow and, if I can watch one of the little b*ggers for a while, I'll maybe get some hunting sketches done....
Only saw one once on holiday; The first afternoon we arrived (and the last sun we'd see all week!), I took my 11yr old daughter around the farm just for a quick walk. No camera (mistake!), no sketchpad (mistake!) just a bit of quality father/daughter time. A hobby flew through a gathering of martins and swallows, it half-heartedly had a little go but its intentions were obviously elsewhere. Even so it was exciting to watch, they are great little hunters! Roll on tomorrow...
Woody
Those hobbies had been giving me the run around all bl**dy morning! Elmley is great for them but actually watching them hunt is real tricky! They have such a large area to work that they always seem to be off to a different bit, miles away, the instant you get the pad out! I'm persevering though, I'll be off out again tomorrow and, if I can watch one of the little b*ggers for a while, I'll maybe get some hunting sketches done....
Only saw one once on holiday; The first afternoon we arrived (and the last sun we'd see all week!), I took my 11yr old daughter around the farm just for a quick walk. No camera (mistake!), no sketchpad (mistake!) just a bit of quality father/daughter time. A hobby flew through a gathering of martins and swallows, it half-heartedly had a little go but its intentions were obviously elsewhere. Even so it was exciting to watch, they are great little hunters! Roll on tomorrow...
Woody
deborah4
Well-known member
Oh I know what you mean about distance, do I have to live with distance! Seriously both sets of sketches are great Woody - Trying to get diagnostic features into a distant raptor drawing that distinquishes it from other raptors that are similar, especially when perched - IMO is very hard! (I've tried and they all look like some of the pics you get on the ID forum - a fuzzy raptor blob that some people are sure is an eagle ... or a harrier ... or a buzzard!
ARTHUR BISHOP
Well-known member
Love the sketches Woody. I see they let you back out of Norfolk although with the weather we have been having.Looking forward to the damp sketches from here.
Dave B
Well-known member
Really love the Grey Heron Woody.
Strandman
Well-known member
That's a very convincing Hobby- I love to see Hobby pics which show the beak as true as this - a splot of light/yellow at the bill base, but the business end of the bill so small that at any distance, it is almost not visible at all.
Woody
Well-known member
Thanks Ed,
they're terrific little birds and I've been trying to properly connect with them for years!
My norfolk trip got off to a good start when, once we'd arrived and got unpacked etc., I took my daughter for a quick walk around the farm. The first really 'good' bird was a little owl sitting like he was posing for a classic postcard image in a hole in one of the old oaks. This was closely followed by a few seconds watching a hobby hunting swallows and martins above the paddocks. 'This is gonna be a great week' thought I...
The start of the week proper though was not so auspicious, the rain and drizzle had started in earnest. Out at around 5 in the morning I watched three, near grown, fox cubs playing rough and tumble behind the cottage. I watched for almost half hour before moving off to seek the barn owls at the paddocks. Sure enough the paddocks proved irrisistable to barnies and my first lot of sketches got done. After a brief visit from a juvenile green woody I set off for the oak where I'd seen the little owl the day before, seeing whitethroat and hearing tawny owl on the way. I was delighted to find him in his 'ole and sketched him through the drizzle. I then sketched his tree and the surrounding landscape from under the shelter of another of the ancient oaks. With the first few pages of my new sketchpad sullied it was off for a huge breakfast and a day of family fun, playing ping-pong, flying kites and fishing.
Woody
they're terrific little birds and I've been trying to properly connect with them for years!
My norfolk trip got off to a good start when, once we'd arrived and got unpacked etc., I took my daughter for a quick walk around the farm. The first really 'good' bird was a little owl sitting like he was posing for a classic postcard image in a hole in one of the old oaks. This was closely followed by a few seconds watching a hobby hunting swallows and martins above the paddocks. 'This is gonna be a great week' thought I...
The start of the week proper though was not so auspicious, the rain and drizzle had started in earnest. Out at around 5 in the morning I watched three, near grown, fox cubs playing rough and tumble behind the cottage. I watched for almost half hour before moving off to seek the barn owls at the paddocks. Sure enough the paddocks proved irrisistable to barnies and my first lot of sketches got done. After a brief visit from a juvenile green woody I set off for the oak where I'd seen the little owl the day before, seeing whitethroat and hearing tawny owl on the way. I was delighted to find him in his 'ole and sketched him through the drizzle. I then sketched his tree and the surrounding landscape from under the shelter of another of the ancient oaks. With the first few pages of my new sketchpad sullied it was off for a huge breakfast and a day of family fun, playing ping-pong, flying kites and fishing.
Woody
Attachments
deborah4
Well-known member
Well it's obviously not me you should apologise to but to my eyes, nobody!! I love this painting and get the feel of a real English wet summer. It's a fresh and 'honest' piece of work (if that makes sense!), perfect!!! I can smell it from here.
Ps to anyone not from UK or familiar with our damp grey days over here and what the countryside looks like at the moment, Woody's captured it in essence!
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