29 June 08

700 party: Four New Species Sketched

Pileated woodpecker, pen and ink with prismacolor It was a great party, but I was especially thrilled to see pileated woodeckers. Didn’t get many sketches done, but this one was done as we arrived at Lake Solano and were locked out of the park, pondering what to do till it opened at eight: Nothing like a good bird to wake everyone up!

Peahen with young, pen and ink Peacock chicks were everywhere, and you have to hope for some natural attrition or there will be more peacock poop than Canada goose poop here…

Peacock, pen and ink There were several gorgeous males. We had a lengthy discussion about exactly how you’d reproduce the peacock blue with watercolor…

Great blue heron, pen and ink A wonderful day, and a great venue for a social gathering.

California quail, pen and ink

Posted by at 04:07 PM in Bird By Bird | Link |

  1. So glad you had such a fun party! Wow…something worse than goose poop; that’s hard to imagine. ;)


    — Teresa    30. June 2008, 16:01    Link

  2. I have a friend who used PearlEx powdered irridescent colors mixed with egg tempera paint to great effect in one of my workshops. I didn’t try it myself but his painting was great! I suspect watercolors would be about the same. Add powdered pigment until you get the effect you want. It comes in sets of all kinds of colors.


    — Gainor Roberts    3. July 2008, 10:28    Link

  3. Oh, these colors are FANTASTIC when mixed with walnut ink; I’ll have to try it again!

    Betty Berteaux, local watercolor artist, sent me three samples of such a blue: thalo blue and thalo green mixed; thalo blue and ultramarine mixed; and thalo blue alone. Different effects, but they all work as “peacock blue.” She got the effect by dropping the colors into a heavy pool of water…


    — Pica    3. July 2008, 10:50    Link

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