revivingKensArt (6 Viewers)

[Bigshent]

What a cracking first pictureB

 

[solitaryVSong]

Thanks Russ, Paul. Russ I'm sure you'd be more impressed, as would I, if I'd done them from life. But they're all based on photos that I've taken over the years. I was really trying to study the bill and all the other facial markings though so I'm happy that it looks like I was paying attention to them.

I finally realized that I really need to study the bills and markings if I'm ever going to get comfortable with sparrows. Each time I try sparrow sketches I realize how much more there is to learn. I'm hoping that once I get more comfortable with them I'll get a bit better with sketching them from life.

 

[solitaryVSong]

Another sparrow, this time the very common, at least in the colder months, White-throated Sparrow. When I looked at the photo I based it on I was taken by the balance of angles between the long tail, the sweep of the primaries and the countervailing angle of the feet.

I've been doing a fair amount of birding recently and have seen a lot of these. There are two types, ones with tan supercilium and ones with white supercilium. The white ones are always striking, esp. with the yellow lores, the black head stripes, the gray on auriculars, bright white throat, and rufous on the wings. That's what I tried to capture here.

As with the song sparrows I'm doing this partly to learn the structure of the bird and partially just to do a painting/drawing. 6x8 inches, watercolor and white gouache.

 

[colleenc]

Beautiful!

 

[Lykos]

fantastic...:t::t:

 

[solitaryVSong]

Thanks Colleen and Gaby. As you may know such realism is a bit foreign to me. But I keep working on it just so I know birds better, both for birding purposes and as a background for my more abstract work.

But I often head back toward abstraction. I recently discovered some old abstract paintings of mine, which I decided that I still liked, and some old unpainted stretched and gessoed canvases. So it seemed like the perfect time to try a more abstract work on a large(2'x4' which is large for me) scale.

Two immature Little Blue Herons seen at Morris Arboretum in Philadelphia this summer. Acrylic on canvas.

 

[JTMB]

I really love the White-throated Sparrow, Ken, great job! I'm partial to these guys because they are the exact opposite of your area - if I see these once per year (especially in my yard) it's a treat. They are a rarity out here, usually only seen fall through early spring if you're lucky enough to find one.

 

[ARTHUR BISHOP]

Nice way to start the New Year Ken

 

[mattybohan]

The sparrows are especially great!

 

[solitaryVSong]

Thanks all. I have a sad addition to the sparrows. My wife insists on feeding a couple of outdoor cats. I knew one day that they'd get one of our outdoor birds. Sadly it was this Song Sparrow, one of my favorite backyard birds.

I was in the middle of doing some new work on the Little Blue Herons when I got distracted by the Song Sparrow. Here is the newest version of it as well.

Speaking of White-throated Sparrows John I feel lucky to see them here. You can get blase about them because they're so common in the right locale in winter. But seeing one is always a pleasant surprise. They're just beautiful!

 

[solitaryVSong]

Taking advantage of this poor Song Sparrow and did two more drawings today. One in pencil, followed by one in ball point pen. The pen is a Zebra pen. I've never heard of it before but I always think back to our resident pen experts, Alan and Paschalis, when I'm in a store that sells them. So yesterday I picked up a couple of these to try out.

P.S. After I'd done the pencil one I thought maybe I made the head too large. So I did the second one in ballpoint pen. Now the head looks a bit large on it too. Who knows? Maybe the head really is that big? But I don't think so. Probably just same mistake twice in a row.

 

[Strandman]

Taking advantage of this poor Song Sparrow and did two more drawings today. One in pencil, followed by one in ball point pen. The pen is a Zebra pen. I've never heard of it before but I always think back to our resident pen experts, Alan and Paschalis, when I'm in a store that sells them. So yesterday I picked up a couple of these to try out.

P.S. After I'd done the pencil one I thought maybe I made the head too large. So I did the second one in ballpoint pen. Now the head looks a bit large on it too. Who knows? Maybe the head really is that big? But I don't think so. Probably just same mistake twice in a row.

that's a really poignantly positioned foot in pic 2, all that potential mobility stopped in its tracks

 

[mark richards]

great sketches...love the sparrows..mark.

 

[Steve Heath]

Beautiful sketches - particularly like the white-throated Sparrow and the red-tails.

 

[solitaryVSong]

Thanks all. Ed, I'm happy that I got some of the poignancy of the dead Song Sparrow.

Today I went back to work on the Little Blue Herons. When I started I really didn't know whether it would head in a more realistic or more abstract direction. At first if was more abstract. But today it headed back more towards realism. Who knows where it will end up?

 

[Strandman]

Thanks all. Ed, I'm happy that I got some of the poignancy of the dead Song Sparrow.

Today I went back to work on the Little Blue Herons. When I started I really didn't know whether it would head in a more realistic or more abstract direction. At first if was more abstract. But today it headed back more towards realism. Who knows where it will end up?

how big is a piece like this, Ken? it's really smart and comes with extra documentary content - here's the bird, where it sits, where it feeds

I was musing (with the usual hesitation about doing so aloud) about the vertical slice in the middle and whether it divides the image: what would happen if you added in something to bridge it and connect up left and right, like a short right facing snag on the tree maybe placed somewhere half way up the picture

 

[RussB]

Nice draftmanship with the unlucky sparrows, Ken. I once tried to draw a dead bird. The poor blighter looked like death warmed up! An affront to a once beautifull creature - a White's Thrush, actually.

Russ

 

[solitaryVSong]

how big is a piece like this, Ken? it's really smart and comes with extra documentary content - here's the bird, where it sits, where it feeds

I was musing (with the usual hesitation about doing so aloud) about the vertical slice in the middle and whether it divides the image: what would happen if you added in something to bridge it and connect up left and right, like a short right facing snag on the tree maybe placed somewhere half way up the picture

Hi Ed,

Don't be bashful about musing out loud. I have thought a lot about that vertical slice. At first I liked it, especially when the painting was more abstract and less realistic. But as it's gone more realistic I've thought about modifyiing it. One thing I've done and might continue to do is to modify the water so that it's all more or less the same color. The slice will still be there but might not be as noticeable. I've also thought about another heron at top of slice but abandoned it as too busy. If it keeps bothering me though I might just add the shortest snag on right....... I know it almost seems foolish to put a complete vertical like that right in the middle of the painting but sometimes it's tempting to try what you shouldn't......

The painting is 2x4 feet. This is an old canvas I found that I made years ago. And yet I can't begin to imagine why I'd make such a strongly vertical painting. Oddly enough now that I've started painting on it I like it! 2x4 feet by the way is large for me these days, though I used to regularly paint 6x8.

 

[solitaryVSong]

I've been delayed in working on my immature Little Blue Heron painting by finding a juvenile night heron in the same location I found a juvenile Yellow-crowned Night Heron two summers ago. Eventually I figured out that the one just found is a Black-crowned.

In any case I ended up doing a quick watercolor of the new Yellow-crowned as well as a sketch comparing the two juvenile species. It's in ballpoint pen with the Yellow-crowned on left, with blunter bill and fine streaking, and the Black-crowned on right. All are based on photos I took. I did do one field sketch of the new bird but it's not much to speak of. Here it is anyway, along with a speck of a female Hooded Merganser at bottom of page.

It is very unusual to find night herons here at this time of year.

 

[RussB]

Excellent work with the ball point, Ken! It seems 'Mr. Bic pen' has inspired more than one person recently! There's some lovely descriptve and expressive lines here, sir!

Russ