Mike's conservatory (11 Viewers)

[mark richards]

A1 woody, very nice....

 

[nickderry]

wonderful work, perseverance really paid off with this one. One of your best and as others have pointed out, resisting the temptation to put in too much detail in the background has paid off well.

 

[Woody]

Cheers Mark, Nick.

I'd always intended to leave the foliage as a pattern with this as it helps to show how the owl's patterns work as camouflage and too much detail would have detracted from the foreground detail and reduced the feeling of depth.

Nice to see you back Nick, are you settled into the new place?

Mike

 

[nickderry]

Settled?! That would be good! Still very much living from boxes and still a few things to move from the old place, including two very large paintings that will suffer in the rain we're having! eek! Just can't wait to get the internet back up and running, at the moment I'm (supposed to be) at work so I can use their internet.

 

[ARTHUR BISHOP]

Hi Mike, love the little-un plenty of attitude as they always have. love it

 

[timwootton]

Where's the Scolopax Chronicles gone to?

 

[Woody]

Where's the Scolopax Chronicles gone to?

Er....Sill there as far as I can tell Tim. P'raps blogger's playing silly bloggers!

The chronicles are due an update though.

Mike

 

[timwootton]

Yes I found them - I just thought you had the blog as your signature.

 

[spizaetos]

Just realized what am I missing,being absent for such a long time.
This owl is a winner Mike!
Masterly composed and executed!
I feel so pleased to be back!

Paschalis

 

[Woody]

Thanks Paschalis, good to see you still popping in when you can.

Just for you Tim, I think I've just saved a signature!

Mike

 

[peter mathios]

The owl and the swallows are both very strong paintings. I love the habitat in the owl and gnarled snag!

 

[Woody]

Over recent weeks the trips to Elmley have been blighted by bad weather, mainly thick fog which has obscured just about everything and made sketching impossible. When the fog has finally lifted there has been a distinct shortage of birds too. Lapwings are always reliable though so here's just a couple of sketches from the weekend. Hopefully we'll get some drier, clearer weather soon, I can get more done when I can actually see the birds!

Mike

 

[ARTHUR BISHOP]

Hi Mike lovely lappies
agood title that Elmley in the mist

 

[EliS]

No lapwings in Finland anymore, they've flapped off to warmer areas for the winter. The sketces actually make me miss them. And the owl is wonderful!

Elina

 

[nickderry]

I can only agree with Elina, lapwings are quite the scarcity in my region, and seeing your sketches of them just makes me itch to draw some!

 

[Woody]

I can only agree with Elina, lapwings are quite the scarcity in my region, and seeing your sketches of them just makes me itch to draw some!

Bit of an easy target for me really, there's so many of 'em I'm pretty familiar with the shapes etc by now. I've been having a struggle with teal lately, just trying to get used to the general shapes, I haven't cracked it yet so the sketches stay for my eyes only!

Mike

 

[timwootton]

I haven't cracked it yet so the sketches stay for my eyes only!

Mike

Ha - I know that feeling mate! I've approximately 350 sheets of drawings from the past couple of months that Sally hasn't even seen. If she did, she'd be 'encouraging' me to change my career-path.

 

[nickderry]

teal - best when they're asleep, teardrop with a square head, ignore head pattern, it's distracting, and particularly difficult towards the back of the head! Now you mention it, I can think of plenty of unsuccessful teal that I've done!

 

[Woody]

teal - best when they're asleep, teardrop with a square head, ignore head pattern, it's distracting, and particularly difficult towards the back of the head! Now you mention it, I can think of plenty of unsuccessful teal that I've done!

Definately best when asleep, otherwise they move too bl**dy much! Having said that, there's plenty of 'em so you can always find one in the position you start to sketch. It's beginning to come together I think, it's quite a revelation to observe closely and 'crack the code' of a particular species.

Well I'm told there's short eared owls about so I'm off to Elmley in the morning to try tracking them down and hopefully I'll get a bit more teal practice in too. Of course none of that will matter if I can find waxwings!

Mike

 

[Woody]

Elmley trip this morning was overcast but dry.

I passed a barn owl sitting almost in the exact spot where I put one for my 'moment of magic' painting, rather cool I thought. Next owl was a shortie hunting one of the fields of rough grass way off, nice to see though, especially since it was one of my target birds for the day.

All the waxwings that I found steadfastly refused to be anything but starlings so no luck there but it was made up for by a low, fast flypast by a gorgeous little jack merlin. I'll get pics and sketches one day!

Walking out to the hide I spotted a co-operative female stonechat and I couldn't resist a few sketches. Good job I did really as the scrape was almost devoid of birds, the tide was out and all the birds were out with it. There were a few teal on the far side so I continued my struggle with them. I think the distance probably helped as I had to concentrate on the shapes without the detail.

I almost forgot the bird of the day! On my way home I found a buzzard, pretty scarce round here, although getting more common, this one was getting hassled by a couple of indignant crows.

I spent the afternoon using the little light that there was continuing with a woody painting that I've been working on. There's lots of detailingstill to do but I thought I'd post a work in progress so you can see I'm not being idle!

Mike