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Elina's Corner (1 Viewer)

Did some lecture scetching, once again. Here's some of those, y-wags and a wheaty, observed on Wednesday.
 

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Tim stole what I was going to say!!! I love your style, it's quite light-hearted yet retains the feel for a bird in the wild. Great stuff!
 
Since it's wildlife art, here comes some canids as well as birds. Some more lecture scetching, I decided to see if I still remember how to draw a wolf (I guess I do, though it's not perfect).

The second one goes more into a "children's book illustration" category, still playing with the pencils and trying to figure out what all can be done with them. The wolf didn't know whether it wanted to be a pup or a grown up, and by the time the y-wag appeared on the paper, I was in trouble size-wise, since there was no plan to begin with.

The last one I started on the train and finished off along the week while playing along with some ideas for a card for a pal. (I've never seen a Ross's gull, but would love to. And it fit into the card idea perfectly.)
 

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the 'children's book' style is excellent for wildlife art, as it concentrates on charcter, and that is what you manage to convey so well, the character in your subjects. Another lot of really good work!
 
Birdless day, ha!

Today I told a friend of mine: "I'm going to spend a birdless day and be a good translator and work all day." Around 5 PM a friend called. We chatted for a while, then she asked when we'd next go birding. In 10 minutes I was out and on my way.

The days most exciting species ended up being the Red-Necked Phalaropes. My pal got slightly confused by the birds trodding on sand. I was somewhat baffled as well at first - never seen a phalarope on sand so far! Fortunately someone called my friend (a long call) so I had a chance to use her very nice Swaro and do some scetching without feeling as if I should hurry up in case she wants to use her scope. It was sort of funny, when she told me after the call: "It's so nice that you are such an easy going person and don't mind the fact that I was on the phone so long." Mind?? I was as happy as I can get - Phalaropes and a Swaro to scetch with and time and peace! What else could I ask for??

Anyhow, here's scetches of the phalas (+ bonus gulls and a crow) done with a black ball point pen. Maybe I'll be working on them a bit more later on. But now I really should get some work finished.

Elina

P.s. I think I want to do something with watercolorish wiht the phalaropes. And I haven't touched brushes in a looong long time... Sort of scared now. Oh well, guess the paints won't bite me...
 

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Found a redneck myself 6 years back (1st in my region for 50 years!) on a tiny pond in some sand dunes, they're gorgeous birds, really one of the best and you've conveyed this in the sketches, a big smile from me. And remember translating is over-rated and brushes don't bite! (I bet you get what I'm saying!) Great stuff.
 
There are a couple of drawings on sheet 1 which are really outstanding. That's the nature of fieldwork - just do it, don't worry about the ones that 'go wrong' and every now and then - 'Whoa! - just LOOK at that!'. And here we have a 'just look at that' page. Lovely work Elina - now get on with the watercolours ;)
 
Oh yes, I'm liking these a lot, especially bottom right corner on both sheets. Good luck with the watercolour and have fun!

Mike
 
Hi Elis i love your wolf, it looks just like my dog!
And your penguin and dipper are amazing, you are a very talented person indeed :t:
 
Thanks all. :) Sam - you've got a husky or a malamute? Would love to see a picture. :)

Well. I did paint the phalaropes + a herring gull. 1) I should have learned to know my subject better. 2) I should have started with something less ambitious than 4 birds on A3. 3) I really need to practice painting more! The brushes didn't bite, but I almost bit them when everything seemed to be going wrong... More than once I had no idea what I was doing, so I just had to experiment and see what would happen.

I still managed to get something done. Though it's not watercolor anymore. At one point things just started to go all wrong, so I started mixing white gouache to all the colors to be able to paint over the old layers of color. I think I just found the joy of fiddling! ;) The head of the gull has probably been everything from green to gray to blue to white. |:p|

I think I've spent enough time with this one, time to move on. (And thanks to Pride & Prejudice 2005 & 1995, kept me in one spot so that I wouldn't run away from the painting in despair.)

Elina
 

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A bit hard on yourself Elina, its got a lot going for itself. the birds are full of life , the gull looks as if hes eyeing up a meal. Love it
 
this is a lot more successful than you give yourself credit for, ambitious yes, it's wonderfully composed, rich in tone and movement and is interesting, so it ticks all the boxes. There is no such thing as a perfect painting, and it's good to push yourself, and tell yourself you can do better, because you can, but the fact that you can do better doesn't mean that this is no good, it's a wonderful picture, and the only way is up. Just imagine the great things you'll be pushing out soon.

(Pride and Prejudice 95 is my favourite, though the 2005 one is great, you can't beat Colin Firth as Darcy, and Mrs Bennett is sublime in it)
 
Elina - I have to disagree with almost everything you say about this last painting. For me it has just about everything - dynamic composition, special and intriguing interaction betwen the birds, very clever use of the slight comedy element (the gull looking so non-plussed by his showy neighbours) and really good colours. I think it's absolutely charming and love it to bits.
What's Pride and Prejudice? ( ;) )
 
Couldn't agree more with my learned friends here. That foreground bird is very alive indeed and there's some great interaction going on. Keep experimenting to see what will happen, it's often the best way and also it's good fun!

Mike
 
Haha, thanks for your comments! A good nights sleep helped me to put things into perspective (and your comments, you're such an encourageing lot, thanks!)

Arthur, I know, I do that all the time, bad habit of mine. Nick, yup, I woke up this morning, looked at it and decided: Hey, this is a good start! (1995, absolutely! It was as perfect as a tv-series/movie based on a book can get.) Tim, thanks. :) Woody, yes it is! For the couple of first hours I was quite desparate, then realised I had nothing to lose anymore, and after that started to have fun.

Got Edward Aldrich's "Drawing and Painting Animals" yesterday evening and am enjoying it a lot.
 
Hi Elis this is my dog. Her name is Xara (pronounced 'zara') she has just turned 6 years old and she is a Border Collie cross, everyone asks me if she is a Husky! Cute or what....
 

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Sam - Aww, Xara is so cute! (I've got a soft spot for border collies, they are such smart and cute dogs.)

I thought I'd learned my lession of ambitious projects at this point, but oh no, here we go again. I chatted online for a while with a fellow birder, who's in north-eastern Finland at the moment. He told me about how old woods are cut down there, and how, from Russia, there come trucks with more trees all the time.

My subconscious started immediately working and created this picture of a bird arriving to its old home forrest which has been cut down. After letting my subconcious work a little more, I concluded I'd use (or: try to use) strong contrast of light and shadow, because it's shady in the woods, but when the woods are cut down, the sunshine is almost cruelly bright.

I'm not sure what the species is gonna be... I started with a gray flycatcher in mind, but... Not sure yet. Sort of depends on whether I want to add some color to the piece or just keep it grayish-brownish. We'll see.

Here's stage 1.
 

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