18 November 07
A Trip to Stockton
We went to the Central Valley Birding Symposium today in order to attend Keith Hansen’s sketching workshop (oh, and buy me a telescope from Out of this World, which Numenius says he’ll blog about this evening).
Keith had us practice placing circles in relation to each other — head, heaviest part of body — and then gave detailed instructions on wing anatomy, foot anatomy, and how to render wing bars.
We stopped by Woodbridge Road on the way home to see the sandhill cranes. I’m going to take a while to get used to using the scope and this tripod to sketch with. But so far it seems very promising… and it’s way cute.
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We nearly crossed paths then; we were on Woodbridge when the fog lifted, around midday. The glorious cacophony of geese, swans, and cranes with descants of ducks and shorebirds was almost as wonderful as seeing them en masse.
Wow, you really nailed that curlew head and bill. Great stuff!
It’s been a long time since I watched cranes at Woodbridge Rd…it’s good to hear the cranes are still there and Woodbridge Rd. hasn’t been replaced by a mall. Nice description and drawings!