Birds, October '07

10/29/07
More Bird drawings.
Another one of Nikki from the field sketches the other day. He was so good and gave me a couple really good, long poses.
This is probably the most accurate scan out of all the pix posted. This is still in progress, and is still quite grainy and light.
The under sketch is Derwent Drawing 6300 Venetian Red:

Nikki 10/29/07
Prismacolor on Bainbridge 2000 Illustration Board, 5"x7"
I tried painting on the unprimed illustration board with acrylic. The results were hideous. So I primed a board and will try that next time.

I was beginning to like what was happening with the Prismacolor, so I tried this one on Canson paper. The color is pretty saturated. This is from yesterday's field sketches of Norman.
The under sketch is Derwent Drawing 6300 Venetian Red:
Norman 10/29/07
Prismacolor on Canson Mei-Teintes Cream paper, 8"x10"


10/28/07
I was so jazzed that I had to post this one.
After struggling with paintings, I decided to go 'back to basics' and return to my strength - drawing - to work on my drawing skills and gain a little momentum.
At the aviary yesterday, I used a Dark Umber to sketch Nikki and Sullivan (two Blue and Gold macaws.) Nikki was being a pill and climbing up the cage to get right in front of me so he could see what I was doing. He just stayed there watching me curiously for the majority of the time, so I got a good close-up of the details of the features of his face. About halfway through I began to fill in the various sections with light 'washes' of local color using the Prismacolor pencils. I liked the effect, as if the sections were 'stained' or dyed the local color.

Nikki 10/27/07 (from life)
Prismacolor on gray card stock, original 8.5" x 11"


This next one is still in progress. I decided to push this one of Nikki a little further, to develop the form and push the color saturation. I am fairly pleased with the results, kind of a cross between a line drawing and a full color form study.

Nikki 10/28/07 (composed from field sketches)
Prismacolor on beige card stock, 8.5" x 11"