4 October 07
Red-tailed Hawk
I’ve been admiring Zeladoniac’s recent pencil sketches over at Drawing the Motmot from her trip to Panama. I don’t work in pencil much: I like the strength of a pen line, the impossibility of erasing, and when I want color, I go straight to colored pencils or watercolor. Debby’s pencil sketches are very alive, though, and I decided to try it out this morning when a red-tail landed on a pine — the same spot on the pine the magpie landed on yesterday. I’m not happy — the surface I was using is very rough, I think I’d be better with something smoother and a harder lead (I was using an 8B water-soluble graphite pencil which is what I had, but maybe a 2B would work better).
This bird mostly kept its face away from me, so I have ended up with a lot of rotten bills again. But it did stick around long enough for me to get a good look at the feathers on the back and how the dark edges fade toward the middle.
By the time I started on the colored paper, I was no closer to getting the bill right (red-tails are large birds but their bills are surprisingly small — I think I need more Raptor Center time). A freight train went by and scared the bird off…
Update: I did indeed head over to the Raptor Center at lunchtime, definitely easier to get these details right at close range (the bill on the left is closest to what I saw, and it’s the third one I drew).
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Hi Pica,
I’m loving these sketches! Hey, I finished the book – actually a couple of weeks ago, but it’s been mad around here! So, anyway, let me know next time you’ll be around Berkeley-way, and we’ll meet up! K