New Forest final piece

here is a finished piece from when I visited the New Forest last weekend. a pair of Black-headed Gulls, a hawking Hobby, several dragonflies, a distant Buzzard and a Sand Martin I randonly added in to fill up the page. based on sketches in post 1 on here.

it gradually evolved from this into what you see below

this piece was done in pen and acrylic

Also, here is a brief sketch of one of the Pied Wagtails I've seen around my school recently, filled in with felt-tip pen

and I also think photography can count as an art if done properly, and here are some photos I have taken recently (dedicated to Username of BF if you're out there somewhere mate :) )

a white spider tackling a hoverfly

and some macro pictures of water on the roof of the extension, which I can climb onto from my bedroom. for some reason the only word that comes into my head when I look at this is 'vortex'. it all looks mysterious, thick and treacle-like to me, and shows how, at a minute level, the world around us is full of such wonders as a few drops of water.

more viscous water

and I felt like God by creating my own mini-waterfall!

sorry about all the random photos but they make me feel arty and I feel hlep to improve the actual art!

adios

Liam

Little Terns ar Rye Harbour-two weeks ago

a day spend at Rye Harbour a few weeks ago resulted in quite a bit of birdlife to draw. Avocets were on all the pools, complete with many chicks. There were Mediterranean and Black-headed Gulls, Common and Sandwich terns and best of all a few Little Terns, successflully breeding in a more secure area than usual. The drawings/paintings I've done since then are too numerous to include them all, so here are a few of my favourites

a Little Tern on it's nest

two LT's in flight over the sea

a 'pod' of Terns in flight

and finally all these plus one extra on the cereal packet they were drawn on! all these paintings were done entirely in acrylic. with water mixed in heavily with the blue to dilute it.

Seaford Head-20 June 2010

a wonderful surprise yesterday when a Red-footed Falcon appared two miles from my house! Getting a lift with Dad, we arrived mid-afternoon, expecting distant views. We were a bit surprised when we couldn't find it flying around as we walked towards the small crowd. We checked and couldn't see anything, though they insisted it was showing really well. I looked in a scope and suddenly it was sitting on the ground in all it's glory, and I could see every single detail. Then I looked up and after a few moments, and noticed that small grey mound 10 feet away in the field! For the next half hour it showed wonderfully, sitting, catching beetles, occasionally taking to the wing and at one point flying onto a fencepost 5 feet away! It even coughed up a pellet at one point, the first time I've seen any bird do this! It was missing several tail feathers and was relucatant to fly much of the time. A shame, and I hope it manages to return to wherever it came from happily.

post 1-New Forest-18-19 June 2010

welcome to all on my first post of this brand new project. 

the most important, and often most enjoyable part of bird art is the field sketches. This involves jotting down exactly what you see while you are out, as a visual reminder for when you get back in with your paint. This weekend was one I spent in the New Forest. we were seeig family, so birding was at a minimum. but on the 18th, travelling there, I got a surprise when I saw a Common Tern over Chichester Canal, sussex. In a car drawing isn't easy, but we weren't going too bumpily so my attempts were better than I expected;

Actually in the New forest, we only got out for a walk on the 19th. At Burbush Hill, near Burley, one of the typical small forest pools held a lone Lapwing, perhaps with mates and chicks in hiding. however he looked a bit of a sad sight all by himself. a rather out-of-place pair of Black-headed Gulls kept him company though!

my final sketch is of, although you can't see it very well, an extremely pale Buzzard. it was in Hampshire. Booted Eagle mystery solved?? it was so pale it looked like a partial albino, which it may well have been. Without colours I can't  do it justice, but will work on it!

adios!!!