Back Again - after a long absence
Hi folks,
I've been away from this forum for WAY too long and had to hop back on after a busy summer which included a six-week across-and-back-the-USA road trip during which I added 46 life birds to my list by visiting several parts of the country in which I had never birded.
I really am anxious to go through all the threads here and catch up with what everyone has been doing.
Most of my time has been spent on landscapes (mostly in oil) but I have still been sketching birds (mostly from references, some from life) and plan on doing much more of that this winter.
The following sketches are from a project I started at the beginning of 2012 and which fell by the wayside, but which I am now dead set on finishing. I decided to start a sketchbook and do a page per species of each species seen during 2012. Since I've seen 286 species this year (with still a chance for a handful more) that will be a big project - especially considering that so far I've done 22 of the species. So, it will carry over in next year, obviously (hopefully not 2014!).
The A4 sketchbook I'm using is from a wonderful premium binder - Stillman & Birn - it is their Epsilon model, which is a plate finish so it isn't meant for water-based media although I'm adding watercolor to some of the pieces anyway. It's great for dry media, so many of the sketches are in Pitt brush pens, and pencil. The Pitt brush pens I love, but even with a wide selection of colors, it's tough to match colors very closely, so bear that in mind.
Anyway, here are some of those sketches.