“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…
Red Kites: beautiful birds, simply put. They are a fairly recent success story in the UK, having enjoyed a very successful reintroduction program using their closest gene relations from Spain. I’ve been fortunate enough to see one (and only one so far) of these gorgeous birds of prey in the wild, and it was idly soaring over the sunlit countryside. I couldn’t quite believe it when I saw it as…
“Summer’s Swallow”, coloured pencil on Strathmore paper, 470mm x 240mm, by Martyn Fox. These little birds are amazing adventurers. Every year they travel from sub-Saharan Africa to Europe to breed, before leaving again in the Autumn to over-winter down there and then doing it all over again. The amount of miles these delicate little birds clock up is nothing short of astounding, and considering how small and fragile they are…
Whilst I was out and about early morning this week, I heard over head a lot of noise. Looking up, I saw several fast moving specks high up in the sky, darting here and there in a wonderful display of agility and speed. A flock of Swallows was after some high flying insects. I was just mesmerised by them, their deft skill in the air being something I always enjoy…
Before I embark on a new large project, I thought I’d do some more sketches and fairly quick pieces. They’re good for practice (obviously) and are a nice change of pace to a big project that takes many hours to complete. I’ve seen a fair few Dragonflies around this year, which is great: I love Dragonflies, they’re such amazing and agile insects. This particular one was a very large one,…
“Nutmeg”, coloured pencil on A4 Strathmore paper, by Martyn Fox. This cute little one was quite the task to complete: all that fur, all those colours and all those layers of it too made for quite the project. However, I’m really pleased with how it came out. She’s got a lovely soft but alert expression on her face and the fur is looking really thick and soft: two things I…
Today I finished mapping out this one, and I’m very happy with it. It shows off its lovely character and coat very well, the simple pose and composition really helping to emphasise those. What is clear now that I’ve got it this far is that I need to work on the values, especially down the forelegs and the cats’ underbelly as this area is looking a little confusing at the…
Nothing like a decent amount of progress, right? As you can see, I’ve mapped out quite a bit of the cat’s body. I do have about a quarter of it left to map out, but my eyes are going squiffy so perhaps its best to put it to bed for now and come back to it later. It is looking a little odd still, not entirely clear how the composition…