I’ve been steadily working on this one as you can see, but the progress has been incremental rather than huge strides. Piece by piece is how such things are completed however, and I’d rather gradually build a piece up and do it right than not. The whole composition is in now, the whole owl and the perch too. There’s so many subtle colours and details in this one that its…
I’ve been making steady progress on the Tawny Owl, gradually building up the initial tone and underlying texture. It is taking its time as there’s so much to get in, but it is a very satisfying project to see come together. I’ve so far managed to plot the head in and have started work down the neck of the piece and starting work on the near wing. This can be…
If there’s one type of bird I really like and admire, its owls of all sorts. They do come in all sorts of wonderful sizes, patterns and colours, all of which have their own unique character and nuance. Tawny Owls, a rarely seen native of Britain are easily one of my favourites due to their fantastic colouration and patterning: and I thought it was certainly about time that I had…
I recently acquired two new colours of paper, both by Clairfontaine who also makes the Pastelmat paper I use from time to time for my pastel work. This paper however is thicker and rougher than my usual Strathmore paper, but not by much. It does make a difference though, as I’ve been experimenting with both the “Naturelle” colour and the “Gris” colour papers. I don’t seem to get quite as…
“Lion silhouette”, Mars Lumograph pencils on Strathmore 300 paper, 297mm x 173mm. This piece is what you might call a bit of a break from the normal efforts, as there’s no detail to speak of, everything is backlit and the colours are as simple as could be: very unlike my usual work then! I wanted to try something a bit different and also see what would happen if I got…
For a sketch piece, I did somewhat get very involved in this one perhaps a little more than I had intended to do. But these things happens once you are into the swing of things. With this one, I just wanted to do something fairly quick, challenging and colourful that would be a good way to get into the swing of drawing again after August. I think the forced break…
It would appear that August this year was a rather busy month for me, so much so that I was unable to get onto the drawing board following the completion of the Red Kite. Things have settled down a bit now however, so I’m now able to get back to drawing. Huzzah! I thought I’d knock the rust off with a simple light sketch of one of my favourite subjects:…
“The Red Kite”, coloured pencil on Strathmore paper, 600mm x 290mm by Martyn Fox. Red Kites are a great success story of conservation in the UK, having been reintroduced a few years ago from a population in Spain. They were unfortunately persecuted to extinction in the UK, but have since bounced back very well. From their original reintroduction sites in Wales, they have since bred very well and spread out…
Since the last update, I’ve been beavering away at this one as you can see, and I’ve worked up the top wing. There are a few areas that will need a further look at and a tweak here and there, but overall even though I do say so myself, I’m very pleased with how this one is coming along. My next task is to work on that tail, and this…
It has been a while since I updated this one, but I have been hard at work at it nonetheless. I’ve finished mapping out the entire composition and have begun working on filling in the colour and detail. As it happens, I wasn’t intending to work on both sides of the main body (the “shoulders”, if you will) but I worked one up and thought it would make for a…