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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

May Sketchathon! (1 Viewer)

Enjoy your preveiw Woody.

Tim I love the sleeping trio. we dont have that problem of falling over cliffs here in Norfolk.Just boggy ground or gorse bushes.Or tripping over other birdwatchers now.
 
Tim, beautiful strong lines and excellent geometry on the auks, the group of three has something about it that deserves gushing long words around the themes of composition, flow dynamics etc, but my bran is not in a suitable gear to explain properly, you get the idea. Just noticed that I called my brain 'bran' proof of it not working properly today! That shag is spot on too.

Arthur, perfectly-balanced and buoyant heron, excellently observed and committed to paper.
 
Tim, so much reminiscent of John Busby. Great form on these...simply super.
These are the birds I miss so much living in Sweden. Cooperative seabirds take some beating, feel like booking a flight home to see all the species I simply took forgranted while they were so very available. I suppose the grass is always greener on the other side...
 
Tim, so much reminiscent of John Busby. Great form on these...simply super.
These are the birds I miss so much living in Sweden. Cooperative seabirds take some beating, feel like booking a flight home to see all the species I simply took forgranted while they were so very available. I suppose the grass is always greener on the other side...

So true, so true. I really miss things such as gulls, rock pipits, oystercatchers,turnstones, purple sandpipers, red-breasted mergansers, chough, pied flycatcher (rare bird here!) For someone like me that loves the coast, I think it was madness to move so far away from the sea.
The grass is certainly greener on the other side!
 
Thanks guys - I wouldn't mind a pied flycatcher myself (or a woodpecker, or a blue tit come to that! ;) )
Mmmm - that's lovely grass over there . . . . .
 
Hello all- just back from foreign parts and see some great stuff upthread- invidious to choose but those Stone Curlews really catch the eye for drawn-as-seen sketching.

My good sketching intentions were cruelly cast aside in a three day hardcore wader counting fest, but these done at night under the red lights of a Korean love motel hopefully just about qualify as sketches within the spirit of this thread...
 

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excellent sketching Ed, the spoon-billed sanpipers with the dunlin is a little masterpiece indeed. I love the way the dunlin are rendered as simply as possible forming a nice landscape of birds, giving all the attention to the spoon-bills.
 
Nice ones, Ed. I am reminded from the one with the spoon-billed sandpipers and the dunlin of the artist Walter Anderson.
Once again, I agree with Nick in all that he says.
 
Was so impressed by the second one that I forgot to say that I love the first one too! The Nordmann's could have perhaps had a bit less work done to it to make it more part of the picture, but with such an exciting bird, I certainly understand why there is more focus on it (though to be honest, all of the waders would be greatly exciting to me).
 
Ah, but Paul - Ed's a perfectionist. Authentic stuff or not at all (no PotNooodly Doodly).
Ed - I am (again) amazed by your recollective ability - superb brace of drawings, of which I think the first is my absolute favourite. The grouping of this disperate bunch appears to 'happen' so naturally - the flow in the drawing is dreamy. Excellent work, as usual.
Ps - was Mrs K accompanying on said trip? (I've heard some excuses for loitering around illuminated premises, but gauging the breadth of my spoonbill is a new one, even on me!)
 
What a nice bunch of comments all

Nick: you are quite right that the Nordmanns was allowed to get more than its fair share of detail

Birdpotter: it did cross my mind that one of the Dunlins would work as a design on pottery- there's a grainy detail below which rather looks that way

Paul: Koreans don't seem to go for the soy- they are obsessed instead with kimchi, a fermented red paste which I am told "...is more than a food for the Koreans. Kimchi is Korean traditional culture itself." and rather more troublingly that Korea has a saying that "the taste of kimchi is the taste of your mother's fingertips."

Tim: Mrs K was unavailable for this trip and seem strangely un-reassured when I mentioned that my room had a free condom supply amongst other features. Shame really when what I actually needed was a free supply of pencils and paints. But the reality as you will be quick to agree is that there is literally nothing that can be done in a motel room which is more satisfying than finding your own Spoonies on a rising tide.
 

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An interesting people the Koreans...

Tomorrow is supposed to be dry, warm and sunny and I have the day off, so pencil in hand I'm going to see what I can see. The downside is to get the day off I had to get a dentist appointment. Short term pain for long term gain, or so I'm told.

:scribe:
 
Nice detail, Arthur. While over here these birds are a menace, I for one, love watching and listening to them and find their plumage to be just amazing.

Ed, I didn't even think of pottery(Walter Anderson is known for both pottery and vibrant watercolours), but yes, some of the lines are very reminiscent to brushstrokes that I would use on a good piece of clay.

I have been working on some quick sketches off of photographs these last few days. It has been relatively rainy and since we are still cleaning out the garage and basement it has been hard for me to justify getting up early and escaping for the morning (upon return I would definitely have to take a long nap as is my nature). This is peak migratory season for upstate NY and I have to get out there within the week---at least that is my goal.
BUT what I am finding with getting the old charcoal out again is how difficult it is to go back to some photos that I haven't visited in a long time. That is, not being able to remember quite the 'essense' of the day or the birds that I studied. Some birds are old hat, and I have relished adding new positions and gestures to my collection, and some I have been dying to get down on paper for so long that it was easy to capture just what I was looking for. But there were those few that have frustrated me. I actually had problems with a loon! The most over done bird of our time and this area! Maybe it is for the best. And then there was a bufflehead in flight that just wasn't doing it for me. Ahh, well...
I don't have a working digital camera, so the photos of my sketches will have to wait just a bit.
Thanks for listening (reading) to my babble and rant!

Best
Elizabeth
 
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