Welcome to Nick's dining room table. (3 Viewers)

[nickderry]

bravissimo

the one with the spread tail has the lovely look of being painted on brown paper?

has the look, but it's just the camera with bad lighting.

Went out at 5am this morning to look for bluethroats at dawn, terrifying driving 80Km in the dark with heavy mist, to see not a single one, poo! Lots and lots of corn buntings to make up for it though (a species I'm not at all familiar with with only two fleeting glimpses before), also had a fleeting glimpse of a stone curlew, plus a distant hazy view of one, also spent a lot of time with a 2cy Montagu's harrier and a few others, I'll post the sketches as usual after a nap!

 

[Andrew H]

Zzzzzzzz.....................?

 

[nickderry]

awake now, though not for long, got so many sketches here, and I'm back at work tomorrow. :-C

Here we have plenty of corn buntings, some randy little plovers, whitethroat, nightingale and a monty's harrier.

 

[nickderry]

I really hate this camera, I may have to take these again tomorrow when there's light!

A mixed bag of Osprey, Yellowhammer, G W Egret, Marsh and Monty's Harrier, GC Grebe and Coot, flyby Cuckoo, Purple Heron and Black Woodpecker, and a nice Stonechat. If anybody has any tips on how to 'see' harriers' wings properly, please let me know. I think I've got one or two that are ok, plus a few that look like a nighthawk

 

[nickderry]

Last page, quick doodles done from the car whilst driving around scanning rapeseed fields in a last-ditch attempt to find a bluethroat. Cuckoo, BH Wagtail, and Swallows (with a sand martin) and a magpie.

time for bed now I think!

 

[nickderry]

GORGEOUS!!!!! :t:

I haven't seen a yellow wag in three years (i'm a REALLY bad birder!!!) but I'm determined to catch up with them this year If I don't I'll just drool over these wee beauties above :king:

You must get out and see few then, I can't think of anything as jolly as a yellow wag! I missed them terribly when I lived in Wales, never saw any for years.

 

[Gill Osborne]

There's been a few at Cresswell lately so I'll shoot off down there this afteroon as soon as I finish work! :t: I don't know HOW I've managed to miss them over the past few years as they ARE there!!! :smoke:

 

[Woody]

How do you always manage to be so productive on your trips out? It's tough to pick faves from this little lot but a special mention for the stoneys, the egrets and the osprey which you've managed to capture so succinctly.

And Gill, if you want yellow wags the place to be is undoubtedly Elmley RSPB. They are starting back now (I saw my first for the year on Friday) and by the summer the place will be crawling with them!

Mike

 

[buzzard12]

Nick, dont even know where to start, great set of work here, wagtails are superb, Montys brilliant too, as is the rest....

Fingers crossed a Bluethroat will cross your path in the not too distant future...

 

[timwootton]

Ludicrously good. There isn't a drawing that doesn't thoroughly delight the senses, viewing them is like taking the most sublime trek through a woodland wonderland - just the finest work, period. I'd just like to single out a couple - the lrp face-on shows just how best to leave certain elements out of a drawing, so right with the character, seemingly so easily done. The harrier is a terrific investigation into the bird, such a lovely group of drawings.
Think I'll start smoking again, just so I can stop - if this is the effect it has on the creative juices (the extra naps would be welcome too).

 

[peter mathios]

It's been a while since visiting your thread and I've had a great time enjoying your posts. They are all soooo good. It's hard to pick a favorite, but since waterfowl are my favorite, I'll be consistent and go with the goosanders.

 

[nickderry]

First off this weekend, in January, I was battling with a painting of fieldfare feasting on hawthorn that just wouldn't work, the composition was flawed - it was a portrait format, and two birds in the middle didn't have enough space around them to make a nice flowing picture, so they disappeared under collage and paint, then I realised that without these birds in the middle, nothing was joining the two halves - after a bit of playing, it got cast into the fiery pit of my 'purgatory' folder.

I took it out the other day to have a look at it, and decided to stick it in the bath and shower off a few layers of paper and paint, it struck me then while the paper was soaking wet that I should tear it in half, and stick the two halves of the picture back together to make a letterbox format - well, now it's finished and, yes it's a mess, but at least it's a mess that I can call a genuine Derry!

 

[nickderry]

next up, on and off after work I've been fiddling with pictures from my trip out a fortnight ago, this is what we've got so far... still plenty to finish off

 

[nickderry]

and last up, yesterday's morning out birding, not a vast amount of things to see, seemed like migration had stopped all of a sudden, but still got a few sketches done

 

[Strandman]

That fieldfare spread is a fine thing - I do like the ones where you can see (or in this case have been told about) the burst of physicality in the preparation.

 

[jomo]

The fieldfares are a definite success (and I think you've done right to put them together, as there's great movement across the whole thing). Stunning fieldwork (as always!), I'm particularly taken by the swallows.

 

[EliS]

Wow... I've been away for too long - again. Stunning. Love the fieldfares and the marsh harrier with grebes (the last one is especially an interesting situation, haven't had a chance to see THESE two species together).

Elina

 

[Woody]

Tons of energy in those fieldfares Nick, and who else can claim that they use the shower as a creative tool! You're a braver man than me for sure.

Fieldwork is superb as always, you manage to get so much info down in the simplest way.

Mike

 

[ARTHUR BISHOP]

Hi Nick super and unique style as always nick and as mike says "such energy" always cheers me up I just cant pick a fav. love them all arthur

 

[timwootton]

Fieldwork is as exciting and instructive as ever (sand martins get a monster thumbs up) and this fieldfare piece is pure gold. To see the final version, it would be impossible to have considered any other result, and knowing of the process involved in getting to that stage makes it all the more amazing. Genius.