Avocets and the Mallard

The Avocets are back at Martin Mere so we decided to have a trip to see them. First though we visited RSPB Marshside which is a mile from Southport to see if I could spot the Black Tailed Godwits. I've never seen Godwits but had been told that they were easy to see at Marshside. Not only did I see the Godwits but right in front of the hide were two Avocets posing for the camera. We also saw a Snipe and 2 Little Egrets which made up for the extremely cold wind blowing in our faces the whole time at Martin Mere. The hide at Marshside was nice and warm, with comfortable chairs and windows at a really convenient height for photography.

I'm continuing working on my female mallard but will post an update on the cats soon. I've added the touch of blue on the wing and a little colour on the breast feathers.

I'm still not sure if Roxie is in whelp but I am leaning towards thinking she is, she certainly thinks she is.

Mallard in mixed media

After my graphite and coloured pencil Woodpecker I decided to do another bird using the same technique. This time a Mallard, 16 x 12 on Arches. It is the first of (hopefully) a trio of Mallard drawings.

I've used a combination of two photographs that I took last year at Martin Mere.
I will post an update of the cats tomorrow.

Maine Coon Cats

I've been working long hours the last two days so not much time for art.

I have done a little bit though, here's a bit more of the three cats.

Crufts dog show is taking place over the next four days. I'm going on Sunday, Juno and Roxie are both entered but Roxie is staying at home just in case she is in whelp. I'm having doubts though, she's not really showing any signs so I think she's fooled us this time. I might have to resort to plan B, I just need to decide what plan B is.

The 2009 Cat Series

I decided I'd better make a start on my cat series which will be aimed at the SOFA exhibition in September.

This is watercolour and coloured pencil on Arches, approx 18 x 14. The finished picture will be a mother and two Maine Coon kittens. You can only see the bit that fit in my scanner.

I ordered some Fisher 400 paper today together with some Clairfontaine pastelmat in three colours. Artists who use pastelmat describe it as being in between colourfix and velour to use, so I thought I'd give it a try.

Graphite Woodpecker - Finished

Now I've posted him I can see one or two tweaks that I need to make. You need to ignore the blue cast from the scan it isn't there in real life.

Today a female Woodpecker visited the garden so at least there are a pair in the vicinity.

Bird of the Day - Goldcrest

Not much progress on the art today but I did get a great photograph of the Goldcrest that visits the garden. For once I was in the right place with my camera. This will definitely appear in a painting at some stage.

Lion in Pastel - part 2

I've been working on my lion. I did take time out yesterday to go to Martin Mere and then visit a friends litter of Rough Collie pups.

The lion looks a little like he's just been to the hairdressers, but I'll change that later.

Martin Mere was cold but I got some good photographs of a male Sparrowhawk. It landed on the ground and stayed for quite a long time with its feet in a shallow pond.

The puppies were lovely, our friends consistently breed quality puppies and these were no exception.

A Lion in Pastel

After the Chipmunk I decided I liked my pastels again. I have a love/hate relationship with them and have been in the hate phase recently.
So I started this lion that I photographed at the South Lakes Wildlife Park last summer.
I watched him for quite a while and took lots of photographs, but I like the way he's looking at the viewer with his head slightly tilted in this shot.
It is about 20 x 16 on blue haze Colourfix paper.
I'm laying a base coat with soft pastels then working with pastel pencils for fine hairs. I will finish with really soft pastels to add little highlights.

Graphite Woodpecker Continued

The Woodpecker is finished apart from a few tweaks, I need to work on the tree now.
Hope you all, including me, have a good week.

Chipmunk in Pastel

This has been one of those weeks you prefer to forget, as quickly as possible.

We took my younger son for an interview at the University he hopes to study medicine at on Wednesday. We set off in bright sunshine, ten miles down the road we were in the middle of a snow storm. My car doesn't do snow, it is rear wheel drive with sports tyres which don't tend to have a good grip. The next hour was rather tense.
We got home and the electrics died in it. Unfortunately they died when my husband had been driving, which meant I couldn't move the seat to reach the pedals.

Yesterday the boiler died in spectacular fashion, the circuit board started smoking, so no heat or hot water.

This morning my husband went to take my car to the garage to find not only had the electrics died, so had the car.

But, thanks to a very nice Mercedes technician the car was resucitated enough to make the garage and British Gas replaced the circuit board in the boiler.

The car may or may not return home today, and the boiler needs more work on Monday, but that will be a new week.

I found a piece of black Stonehenge paper and decided to do a small pastel. I know Stonehenge is the favourite paper of many coloured pencil artists but I don't like it. I prefer Arches or Fabriano for coloured pencil which is why I decided to use it for pastel.

This is from one of my photographs of a Chipmunk I saw last summer in South Dakota. It is only small, about 6 x 6.

Graphite Woodpecker Part 3

More progress on the Woodpecker. I decided to add a touch of colour with a watercolour pencil. I just wanted a subtle touch so didn't add too much and kept it to one pencil.

I usually do French Grey coloured pencil with a splash of colour so this makes a change.

My garden bird for today is a Thrush that was searching for food at the back of the garden.

Graphite Woodpecker Continued

I've made a start on the tree by layering different leads, 4H, HB, 2B then smoothing it all out with a HB. At the end I'll lift some highlights and add some interesting darks.

We went to Mere Sands Wood and Martin Mere today. The light was good with blue sky and sun until just after lunch.

I saw my first Bullfinches of the year, a couple of Bramblings ande had excellent views of a Snipe.

Here's a male Bullfinch.

Graphite Woodpecker

I've returned to graphite today, I'm feeling tired and I don't have to think with graphite in the same way I do with paint.

This is from another of my Great Spotted Woodpecker photographs,

16 x 14 in on Arches hot press watercolour paper.

It is too early to tell if Roxie is in whelp, but she thinks she is. She is bossing the other dogs about, claiming the best sleeping spots and all the toys. She has also become even more vocal than usual telling everyone how she'd quite like to go back to visit her mate again.

Golden Eagle in watercolour

I've started a painting of a Golden Eagle from one of my own reference photographs. There is more of the Eagle but it didn't fit in my scanner.

It is approximately 18 x 14 on Arches hot press paper.

I'm using mainly watercolour with touches of watercolour pencils to add detail. I've decided not to include a background on this one although I might add one or two twigs to suggest a nest.

Coloured Pencil Stoat Finished

I've finished my stoat, I like the effect but it will be a while before I want to use French Grey pencils again.

I had a first for my garden birds today, a small flock of Redpolls. I've never even seen them locally so was delighted when I spotted them in my Silver Birch.

It's not a good photograph because the light is poor and they were right at the back of the garden, but you can see the red forehead.

I've started a graphite Woodpecker and a watercolour Golden Eagle which I'll share when I'm further along.

Mallard Finished

My duckling is almost finished, I've spotted a couple of things to tweak but nothing major.

I have found the watercolour works better with coloured pencil than acrylic so I'll be using it more often.

Drawing Birds by John Busby

If you want to draw birds from life then this book is a good place to start.
Drawing Birds by John Busby
Paperback: 144 pages
Publisher: Christopher Helm Publishers Ltd; 2nd ed edition (19 Jul 2004)
Available from Amazon
The book is written by John Busby who has been drawing birds for over 60 years. He was born in 1928 and studied at Leeds and Edinburgh Colleges of Art.
As well as his own paintings the book contains work from 37 other bird artists, many of them members of the Society of Wildlife Artists. Most of the artwork included are drawings made on the spot.

The book is split into 7 chapters including:-
Birds in Water
Birds in the Bush
Birds in the Air
Each chapter is beautifully illustrated with examples from a wide range of artists who work from life.

The book is not about a photo realistic approach, rather about achieving drawings that have character and life. For anyone who wants to understand the birds they are painting or drawing then I have no hesitation in recommending this book.


Links

• SWLA - Society of Wildlife Artists
• John Busby - examples of his work
• Drawing Birds by John Busby

Mallard Continued

Having done a 600 mile round trip yesterday to take Roxie to be mated I haven't had much time for art.

Roxie has stayed with the breeder as she wasn't quite ready, so we have another long trip next weekend. The big bonus was that we visited Slimbridge on the way home and I got some nice photographs of a Water Rail.

I am almost finished with my duckling.

The duckling itself is just about done except for a few tiny tweaks, the water is also done, so I've just the stones at the bottom right to finish. I'm using the same colours that are in the water and the duckling and keeping them dark so that they don't really attract the eye.

Mallard Duckling in Mixed Media

I'm trying to finish this one in between working on the stoat. Most of it is watercolour with touches of coloured pencil.

I'm working on a new squidoo lens on drawing and painting birds and hope to have a couple of book reviews to post over the next few days.

Stoat in Coloured Pencil

I've been continuing to work on the stoat painting. I've added the stoat itself and you can see the scale. When I was watching the stoat on the Loch side running in and out of the huge boulders I couldn't help comparing its brief lifespan to the endless eons the rocks had been in existence. That was my concept behind the painting, a tiny bright spark in a large monochrome landscape.

Nuthatch

Today's bird is a Nuthatch which I photographed yesterday. The sun appeared briefly so the light on the bird was quite good. I'm definitely going to include him/her in a future painting.

Today we've been at the first dog show of the year. Roxie had to stay at home because she's in season and we would have been better leaving Juno at home as well. His mind was definitely not on showing, it had been left at home with Roxie and Roma (who's also in season).

It was nice catching up with our friends though and looking at this years puppies.

Goldcrest and Stoat in Coloured Pencil

I've started drawing my stoat from the photograph I took in Scotland.

So far all French Grey on Arches Hot Press paper, 20 x 8. I am going to paint the stoat in full colour to provide a bright splash.

Todays bird is a Goldcrest which visited the garden several times, it only stays for a couple of minutes each visit so I was lucky to catch it in a good pose.

Woodpecker part 4

I decided to add a background to the Woodpecker using mainly watercolour with a little coloured pencil on top. It needs some work yet but I have a picture in my mind of how I want it to end up.

I've included a close up of the Woodpecker, still a lot of feathers to complete.

Woodpecker Part 3

I'm finding the watercolour is working better than acrylic when I'm working over it with coloured pencils. I can use a dark Sepia/Payne's Grey mix and then add fine detail using a light blue pencil.I went to Fairburn Ings yesterday and saw my first Kingfisher of 2009, although it was a very fleeting glimpse. The light was poor so my photographs aren't very good, which is a shame as there was a Snipe quite close to one of the hides.

Peanut Butter and Woodpeckers

I've put peanut butter on the menu for my garden birds, the rough not smooth kind. I've started spreading it onto the bark of my trees and it's certainly creating interest.
The Treecreeper appears a little perplexed, in fact I'm sure he'd scratch his head if he could. I think he visits every day just to see what's on the menu, being an insect eater he's not been too impressed with my offerings up to now.




I've been working on my Woodpecker and I have to say I'm enjoying painting the bark.

Great Spotted Woodpecker Painting

I'm working on the duckling but started this one as well.
It's a Great Spotted Woodpecker and it was perched on one of my Silver Birch trees when I photographed it.

The size is 10 x 6 and I'm using coloured pencil and watercolour on Arches hot press paper.

I'm thinking about very lightly drawing a couple of trees in the background but I'm not sure that would work. I'll try it in photoshop first.

Watercolour Duckling continued

I've not had much time today as I've been cooking the Sunday lunch, then afterwards we were all having a turn on the Wii fit. It always finds that I'm not very fit, although today it showed I had the body of a 26 year old. It obviously cannot see my body, or feel its aches and pains or else it would reverse those numbers.

Anyway I'm continuing to work on the water, building it up in layers and trying to avoid mud. I'm being very restrained as I haven't even put the ducklings eye in yet.

Watercolour Duckling

I've made a start on another duckling, this time it's a Mallard. I photographed it in the Spring at Marten Mere.

It's watercolour on Arches Hot Press Watercolour paper, 10 x 8inches.

I've been giving some thoughts to what I want to achieve in 2009.

Birds will play a big part in my work, both photographs and paintings. I intend to continue working on improving my photography as I have become increasingly interested in it as art in its own right.

My specific aims are:-

• I aim to produce 6 new feline works for the 2009 SOFA exhibition.
• I aim to submit 2 works to NEWA and at least one piece to SWLA .
• I aim to enter at least 3 competitions.
• I aim to develop my miniature painting and submit to one exhibition.
• I aim to complete at least one new painting each month.
• I aim to post on my blog at least 3 times a week
• I aim to spend one day each week on marketing with the aim of approaching a Gallery with my portfolio by the Autumn
• I aim to have a tidy up of both my websites, and my squidoo lens

Back from Scotland

The weather was really cold in Scotland, down to minus 20 overnight and never above freezing during the day. It was beautiful, the sun shone and the frost was so thick it looked like snow. The dogs came back from their late night walk with tiny icicles under their chins, formed by their warm breath condensing. Clinton wasn't too impressed with this and demanded they were removed by leaping about shaking his head, then sinking slowly to the floor and rubbing his head on the carpet.

This is my favourite photograph, taken on the shore of Loch Fleet.

Tomorrow I'll post a bit about my aims for 2009 as far as my artwork is concerned.

Tree Sparrow

We're off to Scotland this morning to welcome in 2009, hopefully I'll get some sketching done and have some new photographs to share.

I'm taking my laptop and mobile internet connection so I might post before 2009, then again I might not. If not I wish you all a Happy New Year .

I'll leave you with a Tree Sparrow I photographed on Saturday at Mere Sands Wood.

Rough Collie in Pastel

Another of my Commissions, Bonnie the Rough Collie in pastel.

This was another one I enjoyed because the owner supplied me with some really nice photographs to choose from.

I picked this one which to me had so much life.

The picture was 16 x 20 on colourfix.

Jack Russell in Coloured Pencil and a Treecreeper

Now that Christmas Day is over I can share some of my commission work.

This Jack Russell was a pleasure to draw she had such a sweet little face. Plus I took the photographs which made it easier as I'd seen her personality.

The owner asked that I use French Grey coloured pencil with colour for the eyes, the same technique I've used for cats.

It's on Arches hot press watercolour paper.

My bird of the day is this Treecreeper which was attracted to the fat we've rubbed in the bark of one of the Silver Birches.

It's not the sharpest of photographs but I was so excited my hands were shaking. This is not a common visitor to our garden.

Happy Holidays and a Chaffinch

I bought a Canon lens off eBay and I'm delighted with it. It's a Canon 4oo 5.6 L, really lightweight and easy to use.

Even though the light was awful I managed to take a few reasonable shots today, this is one of the better ones, a Chaffinch.

We're spending the New Year in Scotland so fingers crossed for good light and plenty of birds of prey.

For all who celebrate Christmas I hope you have a very Merry one, for all who don't I wish you Happy Holidays.

I'll be back with some artwork later in the week.

A Photoshop Tip

At last the Christmas Commissions are finished, the last one is being collected tomorrow. I'm now looking forward to getting my entries for a couple of competitions ready.

Today's photograph is a stunning Asian cat.

I thought I'd share a photoshop tip for sharpening an image without altering colour.

Open image

Create a new background layer

In the layer palette select luminosity (the colour and saturation in the lower layer will be retained)

In the filter menu select unsharp mask and adjust the sliders until you like the result

Flatten image,

I have found this works better than applying unsharp mask direct to the image.

More on Taking your own Photographs

Todays bird is a Shelduck chick, taken back in June, the same one that I've started painting in a different pose.
I thought it would be useful to let you in on a few of my tricks for taking photographs of garden birds.

I place feeders in locations surrounded by vegetation that the bird can perch on, as my aim is to avoid photographing on the feeder whenever possible. I want natural looking shots to use as reference material for future paintings. I do however try to ensure that they are never placed where cats can sneak up on the birds.

Once I've placed the feeder I try not to move it as the birds seem happier to visit familiar objects. I also keep them filled as I've found birds continue to visit as long as food is available.

I rub cheese and fat into the tree trunks as I've found this attracts Woodpeckers, and keeps them reasonably still while they peck at it.

I always provide water, Blackbirds in particular love to splash about in it.

If I had to give one tip to increase the chance of successfully photographing garden birds, it would be learn about their behaviour.

I've found that most species tend to have fairly predictable visiting patterns.
Long Tailed Tits tend to visit early and late afternoon, passing through quickly, they never stay longer than a few minutes.
The Woodpecker visits early afternoon and spends several minutes on one particular tree.
The Jay and Sparrowhawk visit early morning, the Jay tends to be on the ground but is very shy and hard to photograph. If the Sparrowhawk has caught a bird you can approach quite close while it's feeding, otherwise it just shoots through the garden.
The Blue, Great and Coal Tits are about all day often taking a seed or nut and perching on a branch to eat it.
So on and so on.

Oh and one other thing, you need an endless amount of patience and good humour when several Collies decide to tell you all about the one you're trying to sneak up on.

Another Bird

Still no artwork but I am continuing to print out my photographs on a daily basis.

Another bird from my garden, this time a Blue Tit.

Standing Room Only

I went to visit the RSPB Reserve at Leighton Moss today, visiting Heysham and Hess Bank to look at the waders on the way.

I'm going to call this one "Standing Room Only".

Yesterday I printed a photograph of a Shelduck chick which I have started to paint in acrylic.

10 x 8 on Arches, started laying in a base coat of indigo with a touch of sepia.

Starling Photograph

I photographed this Starling in my garden, I couldn't resist the beautiful colours in the plumage.

Not the most exciting of this mornings birds but the most eye catching.

Squirrel Photograph

Today's photograph is a Squirrel that I took in Yellowstone National Park in August.
I hope to be back to sharing my artwork by the end of the week.

Least Chipmunk Photograph

Todays photograph is a Least Chipmunk (if anyone thinks it is a different species please let me know as I am not 100% certain) that I photographed in South Dakota in the Summer. I'm torn between painting a miniature of him or doing a larger work with a background.

I'm almost finished with my Christmas Commissions and am longing to paint something for me.

Creating a Photographic Record

I've been thinking about a daily project for 2009. I am realistic enough to know that attempting a daily drawing or painting is not going to happen.

I have also been thinking about how little my photographs actually get looked at because they are files stored on a hard drive.


So each day until the end of 2009 I am going to try to print one of my photographs. I'm just going to do a small version, probably around 4 x6, each one will be a subject I intend to paint.


I've bought some blank 8 x 5 cards and I will stick the photograph to the card. I will then record details about the photograph and which folder it is stored in on my hard drive. The back of the card will be used for thumbnail's, tiny sketches etc. Once the card is full I will laminate it to help preserve the information.


As often as possible I will use a photograph taken on that day, so for today it is a Robin on the garden fence.


I will then be able to share my photographs with people who don't have access to a computer.

Pintail Photograph

I'm still working at my Commissions which I can't show until after Christmas. I've aslo been struggling getting to and from work in the icy conditions. The roads have been sheets of ice because the snow froze during Tuesday.

However the rain has returned so hopefully it will wash away the snow, fingers crossed it doesn't freeze.

I'll post another of my Martin Mere photographs, this time a Pintail with a great reflection. I can't wait to get started on my bird studies.

I've also purchased two new Derwent Onyx pencils.

This is what Derwent says about them:-

Derwent ONYX - Darker than a 9B Our new Derwent Onyx pencil is made from smooth dark graphite and allows you to instantly create dense rich jet-black tones, even darker than a Graphic 9B. Its 4mm wide core has a non-crumbly texture which means it will sharpen and hold a fine point for longer making it ideal for hatching. And, it will smudge allowing you to blend it with your finger tip or a Tortillon.

I haven't had a go with them yet but will do over the next couple of days.