JTMB's Bird Art (1 Viewer)

[ARTHUR BISHOP]

John...

A BEAUTIFUL composition!

Totally agree.

 

[JTMB]

Thank you, Arthur! I am interested in seeing how this composition (or something close) works in a larger size and different media...I like this one enough that I think it's worth doing more than once if only as a learning experience.

 

[JTMB]

White-faced Ibis

Here is one I did tonight. It is watercolor, on 10x14" cold press Arches paper. The reference is a photo I shot a couple years ago at Klamath Lake in southern Oregon. These birds are only very occasional visitors to my home state, so it was a treat to see these.

This is an image I've wanted to paint for some time, and another one that I think I'll do again, in oil for sure. Were I to do it again, I think I would make the birds smaller to make the composition a bit less crowded and give some more weight to the reflections of the water.

 

[phil baber]

You have these Ibis captured.

The light and magical composition is delightful!

 

[Lykos]

very beautiful colors,look so peaceful

friendly greetings Gaby

 

[JTMB]

Thanks Phil and Gaby!

 

[ARTHUR BISHOP]

Love the Ibis's John

 

[solitaryVSong]

I particularly like the ambition that these recent watercolors show John. A very nice sense of light in the ibises.

 

[JTMB]

Northern Pygmy-owl Video

Thanks Arthur and Ken!

Yes, Ken, ambition in my paintings (perhaps 'biting off more than I can chew' would be a better statement - ) is not my issue. I've got more in the mental hopper and will be doing some larger oils shortly since I'm taking an independent project class at college in the winter quarter - and I'll be doing at least one birds-in-a-landscape piece.

I thought folks might be interested in my stroke of good luck yesterday. I came home in the afternoon yesterday and of course the first thing I always do is check out the birds in the yard. I saw a Downy Woodpecker under my suet feeder and quickly realized the bird was frozen solid in place and looking over its left shoulder without any detectable motion of its head. My first thought was that there was an accipiter in the yard somewhere, so I started looking at various places where I'd seen them in the past. Instead, I found this Northern Pygmy-Owl only thirty feet away from my kitchen window, engaged in plucking a bird it had clearly caught quite recently. So I grabbed the video camera, opened a window and shot some video of the bird until the light got too low for filming. The link is here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v82r8WENTLQ. This is the third bird of this species we've had in the yard - very surprising to me, as we don't hear them in the area (although there is good habitat nearby), so not sure whether all three visits were the same bird that has a territory nearby or multiple birds just passing through. The last two visits were in September and November of 2008.

 

[JTMB]

Pine Siskin Sketches

I've not posted here for some time, as I have been spending much of my available art time working on landscapes. However, a couple days ago while walking the dog through the neighborhood, I came across a freshly deceased Pine Siskin - which of course got collected and went home as a model for a couple of sketches. Didn't have much time, but here is what came out of it. This is in my 9 x 9 inch (23 x 23 cm) sketchbook.

 

[RussB]

A fine study, John. I've only ever sketched one corpse and the results were that bad they were cringeworthy. I think they're more difficult than you think as birds look completely different when a foot away rather than 300ft away through the telescope. Sounds absurd but you have to bring 'death' to the thing rather than life!
A bit of the late, great Tunnicliffe here.

Russ

 

[timwootton]

Lovely work John. There's a relevant simplicity in this work which is difficult to catch. Retains all the beauty of life in these postmortem sketches.

 

[JTMB]

Thanks Russ and Tim, and Merry Christmas to all!

I've been working mostly on landscapes recently, but did grab some time over the last couple days to do some quick sketches from video. Here are some of our most common winter species in the yard -Dark-eyed Junco. The pages are A4 in a Moleskine sketchbook using graphite. Some came out decently, a couple are a bit wonky but all were worthwhile to do.

 

[JTMB]

I neglected to post a couple very quick sketches I did during a class on wildlife in watercolor that I took in the fall. These are of Short-eared Owl from a mounted museum specimen that had seen its better days - probably too many loaner visits to elementary school classes. :eek!: As a result, the namesake ears were not just short, but rather pretty much missing entirely.

These were done very quickly with a Tombo watersoluble pen with some water washing done to get some basic tonal variation.

 

[timwootton]

There's a very attractive chunky blockiness to these junco drawings; the planes are described with strength and without question. Yes, some are more successful than others, but all important in the artist's progression, and the good ones really are top quality.
Like the wash drawings from the mounted spec. too.
Merry Christmas.

 

[mayoayo]

I agree with Tim,,the Juncos are very good group..They all interact and offer good facets each and everyone of them..the fact that they are so close related add to the interest of the study..The Siskin study is also very nicely composed,,plus is simple and accurate,besides all the feelling and mistery associated with death.Its always touching..And the sketches of the Owl.--Well ,a different approach to the same mistery,In this case very well resolved in Your own interpretation and success in the "loose style"!
very nice
Marry Christmas,by the way!

 

[RussB]

Nice Juncos, John. Working from video certainly appeals this time of year! Like Tim says, one of the benefits of sketching a bird in different poses and postures is that you can figure out the easier ones (if there are any) and concentrate more on the more challenging ones. For me to really get into a bird I would expect to use several sheets of paper, and If I was picking out the better ones perhaps only one out of seven efforts (the majority of my sketches are done like this) would do. There's some cracking poses caught here, though.
I like the Owl study, too. I'm intrigued about the 'Tombo' pen, John. I'm a big fan of Herman Heinzel's work and in his 'Galapagos Diary' he mentions using them - to great effect I must admit. Could you enlighten me on these, Sir?

Russ

 

[JTMB]

Thanks Tim, Mayo and Russ!

Russ - the Tombow pen (I spelled it wrong the first post) has a fairly large and stiff nib end, and a larger and somewhat flexible brush end and is marked Tombow ABT N15. It's acid-free and watersoluble ink so that in addition to the effects you can get with just the two tips, you can use a brush and clear water to get a variety of diluted wash effects as well.

I am not sure, but think that the company that now makes them may be Sanford now. The ones I have were Japanese-made and had only the Tombow brand on them.

There are other watersoluble pens on the market that I've seen other artists use, but can't recall any brand names right now.

Hope this helps!

 

[solitaryVSong]

Nice Juncos, John. Working from video certainly appeals this time of year!
Russ

And I'd have to add, at least in my case, that video appeals even when you have 10-15 juncos right outside your kitchen door. I had the hardest time getting decent sketches of them the other day. These do capture their combination of chunkiness and elegance (maybe the long tail?) that mine completely lack.

 

[Lykos]

great sketches ,all of them

and now I wish you a very good 2011

friendly greetings Gaby