24 December 07
Two Sides of the Same Sheet
A Lincoln’s sparrow has been in our herb garden for a few days. It’s a smaller sparrow than the white-crowns and house sparrows, and it tends to get picked on, but it deals with this by scuttling off into the rosemary and hopping into the lemon verbena when the coast is clear. I’ve tried to sketch it several times, but this morning I had my best shot: it was alone and unharrassed.
Encouraged, I decided to head over to the Yolo Bypass today and try and get some colored pencil sketches of birds. I have been finding that the second I get a Prismacolor in my hand the “sketch” impulse goes away and I feel an obligation to get things more finished. I’m trying to fight this. The bill on this cinnamon teal is too long but I left it in anyway, in the spirit of full disclosure. The upended duck is a female cinnamon teal in case you were wondering.
But in the end I couldn’t help myself. I spotted this cin-teal pair with their heads tucked under their wings, perched on the tule rushes facing the sun, bracing themselves against the strong north breeze.
We have a number of days off now. I’ve finished His Dark Materials, I’ve finished War and Peace, and though there are several planned day trips in the offing, I think this means I’m going to have lots of time to sketch birds… I hope your week is restful and sweet also.
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Fantastic!!!! Especially the upended cinnamon.