revivingKensArt (1 Viewer)

[Woody]

Nice work Ken. I do keep dropping in but I don't seem to have had the time to have even commented on much lately!

Mike

 

[oivind egeland]

Beautifully captured! I wouldn't mind finding one of those here in Norway, and it's that striking eye that I will be looking for. I think I've commented on that before - it takes skill to capture the character of a tringa species with so few brushstrokes, when there are so many species that look almost the same.

 

[ed keeble]

One of a number of recent Solitary Sandpipers that I saw this week.

lovely gleam off the underparts

there's something very coherent about the work you post on here, the way you see it, render it

 

[solitaryVSong]

Thanks all. If only I thought my work was coherent Ed!!

 

[solitaryVSong]

Though I'd love to be able to sketch dragonflies in the field I've had to limit myself to photos so far. In looking through them recently I just couldn't resist trying to sketch some of them from photos.

These are all done on Moleskine A4 Sketchbook paper. I'd always used the smaller sketchbook until I realized that there were newer larger sketchbooks available when reading Alan's thread. All done with ballpoint pen.

Pictured are, at least as best as I can tell, a Blue Dasher, Eastern Pondhawk, Twelve-spotted Skimmer and unidentified damselfly.

Eventually I hope to be able to sketch them in the field.

 

[timwootton]

Really elegant drawings, Ken. Please go and do some from life - let your pen roll over the paper - with your eye for structure, I'm sure you'll produce some meaningful images. Good lad!

 

[Woody]

Love these Ken, saw them on the blog with your text too. Like Tim says, get out and add insects to the live sketching.

Mike

 

[solitaryVSong]

Love these Ken, saw them on the blog with your text too. Like Tim says, get out and add insects to the live sketching.

Mike

Thanks Tim, Mike. Well a bit easier said than done sketching insects from life I think but I'll try it one of these days. I thought a few of these sketches from photos might help me along the way.

It did remind me how much I used to enjoy sketching insects.

 

[Woody]

Dragonflies can be pretty good subjects when they're hunting from perches, just like a kingfisher they will return to the same perch time and again. Not that I've done much by way of insect field sketching mind you! Good luck when you do give it a go.

Mike

 

[mattybohan]

Those are fantastic... I love painting and drawing dragonflies as well.

 

[solitaryVSong]

Thanks Matty. I know you have a great fondness for dragonflies and it's easy to see why. I had my sketchbook out briefly today Mike but all the dragonflies I saw were the big cruising type. I don't think they ever sat still. I know swhat you mean though about some of them returning to the same perch, like kingfisher and some of our flycatchers. I'll be on the lookout!

 

[Lykos]

great ...love the dragonflies

 

[solitaryVSong]

Thanks Gaby. I was looking at some photos of shorebirds taken last spring. In this particular group I've always been taken by the variety of shapes and the sense of light. This started off just as an exploration of shorebird shapes. Inevitably I also got involved with light. Done with ballpoint pen.

 

[ed keeble]

Thanks Gaby. I was looking at some photos of shorebirds taken last spring. In this particular group I've always been taken by the variety of shapes and the sense of light. This started off just as an exploration of shorebird shapes. Inevitably I also got involved with light. Done with ballpoint pen.

Ken ya beast- I saw some Grey Plover just like that last weekend (on the high tide, piebald yet lost in the background tones) and to my shame have no image to show. But here is yours.

Surely a lino of that is inevitable?

 

[username]

Ken ya beast- I saw some Grey Plover just like that last weekend (on the high tide, piebald yet lost in the background tones) and to my shame have no image to show. But here is yours.

Surely a lino of that is inevitable?

I was thinking that Ed....this latest Ken compo would make a fine lino cut...!

Good stuff..those waders really sit well...:t:

http://username-beast.blogspot.co.uk/

 

[timwootton]

more cracking stuff!

 

[solitaryVSong]

Ken ya beast- I saw some Grey Plover just like that last weekend (on the high tide, piebald yet lost in the background tones) and to my shame have no image to show. But here is yours.

Surely a lino of that is inevitable?

Thanks all. Ed you know if I were a more experienced birder I would have realized right off that this is a high tide scene. It only hit me that this was the case after you mentioned your recent sightings.

I think a lino may be in the works. i continue to find that these sketching explorations often lead to paintings or linos. I have to say I find this type of scene so artistically rich, the various shapes, bills and bill lengths, feather markings, light. I have to travel a distance to see this type of thing. If it were closer I think I might be doing a lot of linos of just such a group.

 

[Bigshent]

I love the wader roost Ken it something I want to have a go at painting but have lost my mojo with paint at the moment :-C

 

[nickderry]

love this wader group, looking forward to seeing how you explore it further.

 

[solitaryVSong]

Thanks all. I'll probably turn the wader group into a lino at some point but for the time being acrylics have pulled me in their direction. This isn't finished but I thought I'd post it just to show I haven't abandoned ship, or won a month long voyage to Alaska.

9x12 inch acrylic. Hopefully it will be finished for a group show this Sunday. if not it should go in my three-person show around the corner at local art coop, opening almost on same day as SWLA.