Welcome to Nick's dining room table. (5 Viewers)

[ARTHUR BISHOP]

The coots are amazing... so spontaneous and so true to life. Great stuff!

totally agree

 

[RussB]

Wonderful work, yet again. Is it just me or is the head and bill profile of the common or garden coot one of the hardest things to draw accurately? I've been trying three years and have never quite got it! Still, this effort of Nick's will spur me on.
The chiffy is pure genius how it's been nailed in just a few strokes and shading. I'll even put it on the same page as those Willow warblers in Lars' 'Birds and Light'. Masterful.

Russ

 

[Matteo Grilli]

I LOVE these ones! Especially the coots + grebe. All so brimful of life

 

[nickderry]

almost sliding off the first page again - it's so nice to have so many people on this sub-section, though it's getting harder to always catch up with all the excellent work that appears. I've been shut in the studio for a while, and here's some of the work that appeared (or got fiddled with). Got to rush, off to work in an hour and still got a ton of stuff to do! So apologies for the bad photos!

 

[username]

Whinchat and pecker pic excellent....[in particular the whinchat]....talk about blending in with the habitat...!

:t:

 

[JTMB]

These are excellent as always - I particularly like the depiction of natural camo.

 

[colleenc]

each a treasure, for me love the loon and the winchat at the end...on that the comp is daring with the dark above and just the right balance.

 

[nickderry]

each a treasure, for me love the loon and the winchat at the end...on that the comp is daring with the dark above and just the right balance.

I'll post the versions that are going into my 'purgatory' folder - all of them, it really was a difficult pic to do!

 

[colleenc]

do! I'd love to see them

 

[nickderry]

here are the fails - working through too many ideas and getting lost and overworked

 

[username]

The 'fails'..!!!!!???? :eek!:

I like that center pic of whinchat best of all....blimey...! Your color/comp sense is...eerrr.....how can i put it...?....'very good'.....[deliberate understatement]....

:t:

 

[colleenc]

I would like to fail as good as these, and agree the center one is def a keeper.

 

[solitaryVSong]

The 'fails'..!!!!!???? :eek!:

I like that center pic of whinchat best of all....blimey...! Your color/comp sense is...eerrr.....how can i put it...?....'very good'.....[deliberate understatement]....

:t:

My reaction the same on these 'fails', though I really like the first one too. Both 1 and 2 have a great luminosity. And as John says you've done a great job of capturing birds in their camo backgrounds. I almost didn't even see the woodpecker. All a great pleasure to look at, again and again.

 

[Strandman]

My reaction the same on these 'fails', though I really like the first one too. Both 1 and 2 have a great luminosity. And as John says you've done a great job of capturing birds in their camo backgrounds. I almost didn't even see the woodpecker. All a great pleasure to look at, again and again.

it's an intriguing puzzle for us Derry watchers to try and workout what got each of the "fails" dropped- I'm thinking pic 3 got dropped because you decided the bird should be slightly more off centre to the right, as in the final?

 

[nickderry]

it's an intriguing puzzle for us Derry watchers to try and workout what got each of the "fails" dropped- I'm thinking pic 3 got dropped because you decided the bird should be slightly more off centre to the right, as in the final?

spot on! also the 'dark area' was too 'busy', as it was a last-minute idea. I was messing around with yeloows and greens and not getting anywhere, one large brushful of paint over the top later, I could see where I was supposed to have gone with it.

 

[Lykos]

search the bird....fantastic ,like it so much

friendly greetings Gaby

 

[ARTHUR BISHOP]

been looking and not saying how great these are Nick

 

[spizaetos]

This center pic is my favorite too!!

Paschalis

 

[RussB]

Very interesting debate re the compositions/colour of these last posts. Personally, I love the Whinchat pic - how the bird seems 'nestled in' by the darkness of the vegetation is soooo beyond anything I'd attempt. When I read somewhere that 'Jonsson paints with the eyes of a poet' I can identify such a desciption when looking at work like this - is it what's called expressing yourself?
The diver, too is superb. Particularly impressive is the rendering of the ripples and reflection - Mr Tunnicliffe you have company.

Promise not to name-drop as much.

Russ

 

[nickderry]

just popping in to drop of my sketches from yesterday - a really hot October day taking in Pagney and Osselle. We have Green Woodpecker, Captain Excubitor seems to be warming to me after so many blank years, but we're not on first name terms yet - he perched up on top of an ash with a Yellowhammer than promptly disappeared not to be seen again, despite much waiting - this Chiffchaff demanded a little attention while I waited. At Osselle this nice male Black Woodpecker finally showed itself after making a lot of noise as it flapped slowly across the river, and a nice surprise was five Great White Egrets that dropped in to rest in some trees on the other side of the road. Ads must have been very wicked in a previous life for me to see two Black Woodies in two trips, I'll try and send one over the channel for him to find.