A Bird in Hand

Silverpoint heightened with white

Let's see, the last two posts have been about critters and hands. This image seems to be a good way to tie those together and then maybe move on to something else. This was actually based on a stock photo by the lovely Longstock that I just couldn't resist. For more of her stock work take a look here. link

Critters

I used to do a lot of pen and ink drawings. For some reason I got away from it. I may have to take another look at in drawings because I really like the look. These are some of the things I did, again older work until the new camera comes.


Sorry, not a really good picture of this, but it will have to do for the time being.


Every year the World Bird Sanctuary would invite their members out for a photography day. They'd place their birds in a more natural setting than the usual perch. It was a good time and you could get some pretty good pictures. They had this little guy sitting in the crook of the tree, and people were having a terrible time just finding the bird. It almost always had to be pointed out.


We seem to be lousy with raccoons around here. There's a family down the block that thought they were so cute. So they started feeding them. Well, that's fine except they don't stay down there. Just about every night they come up here and raid the bird feeders. Again, I can deal with that, just don't put out much seed before dark. Well, one night I look out the sliding door in the kitchen and my cat starts slowly backing away. That was strange because she usually ran around the house like crazy when she had a raccoon visitor. So I looked a little closer and saw that there was a family of five out there.

Hand Studies

Many people find hands to be the most difficult part of the human form to draw, and I'll agree they can be. Unfortunately they are also one of the most expressive parts of the body too, so learning to draw them is pretty much a necessity. So what tips do I have for drawing them? None at all other than practice, practice, practice. Sorry no real words of wisdom here, but I'm open to suggestions. That being said I do take my own advice, and I do a lot of hand studies. The following examples are all kind of old now. (My camera bought the farm and the scanner isn't much better, so for the next few weeks there will either be older things or nothing at all.)


pencil heightened white white chalk

This is the oldest one of the bunch. Hopefully these will show some improve with time. It is a study for a larger piece that I never got around to doing. Maybe someday, but until now the hands are all that exist.


pencil heightened with white chalk

Another study for a larger oil, this one was done. This study is actually a good example of why it is good to do studies. Not only do you work out any potential problems before the actual final work begins, but you may wind up with a nice piece in itself. People love to see the process leading up to the final work. In this case the study was bought by a violin teacher. Apparently my model has perfect technique, and the teacher wanted to use this as an example of what should be done. Really more of a compliment to my model who is a wonderful violist than to me, but I did wind up with two sales instead of one.


silverpoint heightened with white chalk

You might remember a similar piece back in the beginning of this blog. This one, like that one, is really more of a stand alone piece. It was never meant to grow up into something bigger. Just a practice piece that works pretty well all by itself.