first autumn '10 stuff

as you can see here, I have started watching my local patch for signs of autumn migration. On the first day I visited, 26 July 2010, one of the most obvious signs of migratin were large flocks of Swifts passing west along the clifftop. s a bird I love to paint, in totally diffferent circumstances to how I usually see them, I really was powerless to resist the urge to draw these beauties, and attempt to capture some of the spirit of those ethereal beings as they zipped along Seafod Head at phenomenal speed.

while this is another bird from that day, a Green Sandpiper. this is another species I quite enjoy drawing, but I very rarely paint them in a nice typical pose feeding on a muddy bank. The reason why is very simple I never see Green Sandpipers feeding on muddy banks! I always get quick views of a dark grey bird with a white arse, but they are probably more impressionablw on my mind in these views, hence I paint them far more like this.

catch up

as per usual my camera stuff is failing miserably to upload any kind of photos. I eventually got all of them from the past two weeks (!!) onto my laptop yesterday but never got tie to upload any of the stuff I've done since then. Hope you enjoy!!

an avocet painting, based on birds seen from a seawatch at Splash Point this spring.

Tern/Gull silhouettes against sea background

I have a few more I haven't photographed yet too so look out!

all the best

Liam

terns-done in pen

this mixed tern flock is one of many I saw at Splash Point this spring seawatching. Done in pen in around 15 minutes

many pictures!!

with my ability to upload photos somewhat buggered for the last three days, I haven't been able to put any new pictures on here. However, I've done a fair few little watercolour pieces in these three days. Most of these were my own little way of 'celebrating autumn'. i.e they were painted based on what I saw last autumn at Hope Gap, my local patch. so here they are...

lemony Wagtails as they pass overhead on a clear August morning. It all looks a bit messy and badly drawn but it often takes me a few attempts to get a painting right (not an outright promise though!) done in watercolour.

and a Turtle Dove, which flew overhead as I was admiring a Garden Warbler on 5 September 2009. again I'm not overly pleases with it but they are a difficult bird to see much detail on in flight, shape is more important with this sort of bird and I feel that the shape/jizz of the bird is 'acceptable'. done in watercolour.

A Red Kite, also flying over on 5 September, which flew SE out towards the channel mobbed by Jackdaws. done in watercolour.

A Red-breasted Flycatcher, found by my dad on 7 November 2009 on the patch. Personally this is my favourite out of all the autumn on patch pictures. done in watercolour.

I did a few more pictures too over these past three days. Some were random things that caught my imaginaton, some were flashbacks into other birding moments, all are shown  below;

Swifts on a warm evening, complete with an Alpine among them. Daydreaming with paint? well yes off course, but after painting it I remembered seeing scenes like this over my grandparents house in Cyprus, so maybe I had a subconscious influence! the swifts in here are done in black acrylic and the background in watercolour

an Oystercatcher, partly influenced by the 100's I've seen at Longnriddy in Lothian when we go up north to see family in Edinburgh. Longnriddy is an inspring place for anyone who wants to sketch seaducks or waders, and for anyone who can go I would highly recommend visiting it in winter. the oystercatcher is done in pen and the rest is watercolour

a Common Tern. the background is purely fictitous, partly inspired by simple watercolours in the Jonsson tiny little paintings in Collins Birds of Britain and Europe. the Common Tern is from many observational sketches taken in Anglesey and Rye Harbour recently.