9 August 08
A Big Sketching Day
Bird by Bird is nearly a year old. I started out with white-faced ibis on August 27 last year. I haven’t been keeping up with a daily sketch this summer, which has made me a bit distressed, not least because it’s obvious that the facility of drawing vanishes quickly if you (I) don’t do it every day. So I’m resolving to get back to it, even if they are just very fast sketches like yesterday’s red-tailed hawks.
This morning, though, I had a lot of time and did some quick pen sketches of the ibises out on the flooded field just to the south of our house. The birds were a little skittish but stayed pretty much put, and the light was gorgeous on their feathers. I got the pastels out for a longer sketching session.
Ibises are strangely balanced: a tiny head and neck, and a really tiny body, but long wings that give them a weird impression of being about to tip over.
I was ready for breakfast but noticed that the barn swallow babies in the carport were getting ready to fledge, so I thought I’d try and catch them all crammed in their tiny space while they still were. (They have, in fact, already started flying; several left the nest briefly and returned to it while I was sketching, but seem to prefer to let their parents bring them breakfast rather than find it themselves.)
Starlings, magpies: I sketched them too. But when these teenage turkeys settled outside the kitchen window for a nap, I picked up the pastels again. These are the Stabilo Carb Othello pastel pencils, easy to sharpen and a joy to use. It’s good to get back into this.
Richard’s in town and we’re going birding again tomorrow morning; I’m bringing the sketchbook along!
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Yay…you’re back at it! I have the Stabilo Carb Othellos too; I should sketch. ;) The turkeys are my fav.
Happy anniversary! I love the ibis here.