Matt's watercolors (2 Viewers)

[Woody]

All beautifully and delicately done. Top drawer!

Mike

 

[timwootton]

Great work - all. The ibis has a real sense of action - fine job.

 

[Lykos]

beautiful work

greetings Gaby

 

[mattybohan]

THanks all! The woodpeckers are a fun group of birds to draw. Someday it'd be fun to get a cooperative acorn pecker to draw.
Colleen... that was the link to the previous Ibis painting. It probably seemed out of place right before the next post.

 

[ARTHUR BISHOP]

Some great work on here

 

[mattybohan]

Another drawing from the Florida trip... Snowy Egret in flight.

 

[timwootton]

. . . and another great piece, Matty. I really like these drawings; the subtlety of the tonal work contained very precisely with the lovely outline. Smart!

 

[Woody]

. . . and another great piece, Matty. I really like these drawings; the subtlety of the tonal work contained very precisely with the lovely outline. Smart!

Indeed. There's always such control in your drawings, fantastic technique.

Mike

 

[JTMB]

Extremely well done, Matty! You've captured the flight posture of the wading birds very well. Always amazing to me how compactly they can stow away that whip of a neck.

 

[colleenc]

I'm really starting to appreciate the abstract quality of your heavier outlines which have descriptive qualities yes, but looking closely the line never is generalized or common but has all these little shifts, turns and nuances that lend life to the drawings.

 

[mattybohan]

Thanks! The snowy egret is a gorgeous bird. They were pretty nasty to the ibis, harassing them all the time tying to get them to drop their fish.

Thanks Colleen! Its hard to find a balance between the shaded drawings and a lively line. Occasionally it works well. I used to do a lot of pen and ink work with weighted line. I've been thinking about that a bit lately when doing the pencil work.

 

[Woody]

Great ruby throat Matt. I tried to get some shots of them years ago when I visited N Carolina and ended up with some tiny little smudges in loads of background!

Mike

 

[mattybohan]

Thanks!. They are hard to photograph. I throw awya a ton of shots every time I try. It seems the best luck I've had is prefocusing a long lens (400mm) on a tripod where the hummer will be lined up at a feeder, then using a wireless remote. Even with that, the bird gets chopped off of is just out of focus in many of the shots. Sketches are almost always a composite of many shots and direct observations.

 

[JTMB]

Gorgeous Ruby-throated Hummer drawing, Matt! I enjoy seeing these birds when I visit my sister in PA. Our two common species on the west side of the mountains out here are Rufous and Anna's - though we do on rare occasions see a Calliope. They are definitely tough to photograph.

 

[mattybohan]

A backyard favorite... a rose-breasted grosbeak. Its hard not to like these pretty birds. They seem to have looks AND personality.

Transparent watercolor
Lana 140lb HP paper
9.75 x 6 inches
(detail shot of head is 1.5 x 2.5 inches)

WIP can be found here...

 

[Lykos]

wow.....great :t:

greetings Gaby

 

[colleenc]

lovely hummer, and the gros beak is really alive with the red and green play of color

 

[mattybohan]

Jays are common and don't have the most admirable behaviors, but they sure are pretty!

 

[JTMB]

Another fine piece, Matty! I actually miss seeing Blue Jays out here in WA. Only very rarely does a vagrant show up in our area. We do have the Steller's Jay, however, though it's not quite as striking as the regular Blue Jay.

 

[mattybohan]

Hey John,

I don't know. The first time I saw a stellar's jay it knocked my socks off! Those are beautiful birds.

here is a non-avian subject. I found it in the bottom of my parrot's cage, so in a strange way it sort of relates. It was tiny... about 1/16th of an inch. Drawing this was a job for the macro gear and dissecting microscope.