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nickderry · Mar 27, 2007

Here's a progress report of the middle spotted woodpecker, a first version that turned out to be a bit boring, and (rare for me these days) a pure watercolour that I'm quite pleased with. Having trouble typing as I'm on the phone speaking French and typing English, stop typing now, add pictures.

ARTHUR BISHOP · Mar 27, 2007

all just great pictures

timwootton · Mar 27, 2007

The woodies are very nice. I actually like the first one a huge amount - when you say it's boring, do you mean comp. colour. design or what? - maybe you should allow one of the swelling buds a bit of licence and break open into sap-green leaf. May add that bit of something you're looking for?
And what's the problem with talking French and typing English??? - tut! kids of today - I regularly scream an obscene Yorkshire dialect at the girls whilst coherently typing boll*cks at the same time.

nickderry · Mar 28, 2007

The thing I find boring in the first one is it just looks like a blurred photo, a bird in some branches. The second one, though it might not (can't) be everyone's cup of tea, has a lot more interest for me, there's a bit more intimacy with the bird, the first one I find has too much of an element of being a spectator.
I've no problem speaking French out of my mouth and English out of my a*se at the same time, but I think the typing part of my brain is linked to speech, as I ended up typing French and reading out what I had written to somebody who hadn't a clue what I was on about.

Woody · Mar 28, 2007

I think I see what you mean Nick, although I would be proud of either of these pics. The second one does have the edge for me. The composition is masterful but then that's what we know to expect from any of your work. It also has wonderful colour, the red on the pecker's head really pops against the lilacs and blues.

Woody

nickderry · Mar 28, 2007

I think I've hit the nail on the head with the first one, as to why I don't like it. The buds are virtually everywhere, filling up every available gap and making the background look more like wallpaper. In the second pic, I deliberately decided on the composition of the branches first before slotting the woodpecker in the top.

Had an afternoon birding today, hoping to get a passing black stork, got just one passing black kite and a lot of buzzards, am tempted to post a sketch on the id forum pass it off as a bad photo of an 'unidentified' buzzard and see how many people try to count the primaries and turn it into a goose or something. Sketching wise, unproductive, a close flyover sparrowhawk may be turned into a picture. (The sketch of it, not the actual bird, that would be cruel and very difficult to do)

nickderry · Mar 31, 2007

Still working on some new pictures, there's a water rail coming along slowly (not like me at all but lots of other work and driving lessons to distract me) Think tonight I'll crack open some cheap nasty wine, yum, and try and finish it.

I keep searching through older pictures to see if I can give them a new lease of life with a new coat of paint, the latest victim is this grey wagtail:
Grey Wagtail

I'm much happier with the bird now than its deformed predecessor:
Old deformed Grey Wagtail

peter mathios · Mar 31, 2007

nickderry said:
I keep searching through older pictures to see if I can give them a new lease of life with a new coat of paint, the latest victim is this grey wagtail:
Grey Wagtail

I'm much happier with the bird now than its deformed predecessor:
Old deformed Grey Wagtail

I like it! There is much more contrast and it is alot more three dimensional than it's predecessor. Nice job...

nickderry · Mar 31, 2007

Busy busy busy,

The music's up loud, the housework is done (or being ignored) and the paint is flowing (along with other interesting beverages - well, I'm not at work till Monday, let the good times roll)

New painting in progress, a water rail from my new year visit back to the UK and the old local patch of Belvide reservoir in Staffs. I won't tell you where he is in the picture as I'm going for it doing a vanishing at in the finished piece.

Also here is a pic of the artist in his 'dining room', bottles containing the necessary materials for painting are visiblein the background, along with a pack of ASDA malted milk biscuits lovingly sent cross channel by my mother. France is certainly lacking in the biscuit department, or am I just still too British at heart?

nickderry · Mar 31, 2007

ps, If anyone's got any tips on painting dead reeds, I could do with them. I nearly always lose any spontaneity on them at the end of the piece, giving them all the allure and attractiveness of a botanical illustration.

Drink more is the piece of advice I'm following at the moment. Not sure it's the best plan. Maybe get off the computer and paint would work better?!

nickderry · Mar 31, 2007

progress report:

this evening is turning into a p*ss up and not a painting session, I do promise however to post the resulting mess. Whatever it turns out like!

Still I'm having fun! yippeeeeee

jomo · Mar 31, 2007

I'm already finding that Rail piece rather exciting, Nick (wonderful rippling reflections, water can be such a tough thing to get right but you don't bat an eye).

Woody · Mar 31, 2007

nickderry said:
progress report:

this evening is turning into a p*ss up and not a painting session, I do promise however to post the resulting mess. Whatever it turns out like!

Still I'm having fun! yippeeeeee

Good for you Nick!B

B

I've gotta go pick up my son from a party now so no booze for me! Hope you enjoy tomorrow morning too?!!!

Woody

nickderry · Mar 31, 2007

Cheers guys, I'll probably still be up tomorrow morning, the only strategy to beat a hangover! Here's how it's coming along anyway - no real plan with it, just playing and waiting for more inspiration.

ARTHUR BISHOP · Mar 31, 2007

Its coming along nicely, from the photo are you painting this from under the table?

nickderry · Apr 1, 2007

It feels I am under the table now Arthur, maybe time to go to bed and see what it looks like when I wake up. Here's how it's looking now.

Going out birding tomorrow afternoon, hopefully Monday I'll be painting Black Woodpecker and Crag Martin.

nickderry · Apr 1, 2007

apologies to anyone that liked how it looked before, it was becoming more of a headache than my (reasonably mild considering) hangover.

Big brush, big mess, splash splash splash. It was starting to go into the realm of Michael Warren in his shoreline days (fantastic pictures), which wasn't the direction I wanted for this picture, I want something a bit more blurred around the edges.

ARTHUR BISHOP · Apr 1, 2007

I love the effect of being drawn up the tunnel and when you darken the shade the the reflection and light on the water will be stunning. luck with your sketching too.

timwootton · Apr 1, 2007

I almost left a post last night, but I thought the combination of me just returning from a FREE seafood buffet and copious quantities of alcohol, combined with the state you were clearly getting yourself in, would have made for a less-than lucid correspondence. So I left it til now - I like the way it's going, although I was sorry to see the detail disappear, but I know you'll bring something fresh to the piece.

nickderry · Apr 1, 2007

This is how it's coming along, I just couldn't handle the detail today, so got rid of it for the moment. The picture needed to be brought all together before I could find somewhere to put the detail in. It'll come back though!

It looks like the tunnel vision that I wanted in the first draft has disappeared though, maybe it'll come back, otherwise, when I saw this rail, it wasn't happily sitting in the background, it was still on the run, just pausing to glance back over its shoulder. Hence why the bird is now bigger and more obvious.

Seafood buffets and alcohol are never good conversation partners, you did the right thing Tim!

Arthur, it looks like I will have good luck for sketching this PM, the French weather forecast of rain looks like a lie, the sun is out, it's lovely, seriously, they should content themselves on reporting the weather from yesterday rather than predict the weather for the next day. Fingers crossed for a crag martin or two! (would be a lifer!)

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