Puddles

We’ve had some rain, leaving puddles everywhere. The birds are taking baths. This house finch is very bright and was watched today by a perched yellowrump.

On Hold

I don’t know what non-bird-sketchers do when they’re on hold, but I do this. I do an enormous number of bird doodles, few of which ever make it on to Bird by Bird, because they’re not drawn “from life,” yet they’re part of my process, so I’ll show this one.

Obviously I was trying to draw a peregrine falcon from memory. There are some major anatomical issues with this bird but I was really enjoying how the black prismacolor was spreading itself around the eye…

Bluebird Box

I am taking a woodworking class in order to learn how to make bluebird boxes. I bought three lengths of redwood board but the guy in the shop here got carried away and couldn’t stop himself; he built the three himself. (So now I’m making a breadboard and a cold frame.)

We hung the boxes this morning. At the end of the afternoon, three birds (one banded male, two females) were actively investigating the one closest to the building…

A Trip to Macworld

I took a trip to Macworld today on the train, and sketched my way down and back. Given that tomorrow is the 21st (!) worldwide Sketchcrawl, and there will be as usual a large San Francisco contingent, I thought I’d participate in the same spirit but just a day early. Drawing birds from a moving train is a bit of a challenge since the birds invariably move too, fast, away, but it’s a good exercise.

I ran out of ink while I was in the middle of drawing the church near the Moscone Center and had to head out in search of more, a lovely tuscan red Waterman ink I found at Patrick’s on Market. This all doesn’t have a lot to do with Macworld. To tell the truth it was a bit disappointing and I won’t be going back — even if there are any more, which is now a question. It’s the end of an era? Adobe wasn’t there. Wow. That was major. Anyway, I had fun sketching; it was a fantastic day to be on a train and to eat lunch outside, at the fabulous Samovar Tea Lounge, sheltered from the wind.

The gulls didn’t move away and I had fun drawing ring-billed, California and even a herring gull. I saw a glaucous-winged juvenile (it might have been a hybrid but who’s counting) but it didn’t alight near me and I didn’t have a chance to sketch it…

(Other, not necessarily birdy, sketches from my jaunt can be found here and here.)

New Year, Different List

I have decided to notch down the Bigby this year to birds seen on foot from our house. Numenius and I walked into town (about 2.5 miles) with a couple of friends to see Slumdog Millionaire, but we saw a bunch of birds on the way. Here’s a list from today in order of birds seen or heard. I’m going to keep a running total in taxonomic order on the sidebar of Bird by Bird once I figure out what to do with my 2008 bike list.

I have a photo of a bird not-quite-sketch to upload which will appear in due course can be seen at right It’s an egret. I think I’d better leave designing fancy patterns to others who know what they’re doing.

American Crow
Yellow-billed Magpie
Black Phoebe
White-crowned Sparrow
Yellowrumped Warbler
American Kestrel
Killdeer
House Sparrow
Western Scrub-jay
Greater White-fronted Goose
Snow Goose
European Starling
Redwinged Blackbird
Western Bluebird
House Finch
Northern Mockingbird
Rock Pigeon
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Cedar Waxwing
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Northern Flicker
Mallard
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Bushtit
Black-throated Gray Warbler (an excellent find for January, here)
Anna’s Hummingbird
Orange-crowned Warbler
Pied-billed Grebe
White-breasted Nuthatch
California Gull
Wood Duck
Hermit Thrush
American Robin
American Coot
Varied Thrush (in a large conifer near Border’s)
Green-backed Heron
Great Egret
Barn Owl

Back From the Desert

I have just returned from Palm Desert where I had a wonderful time with a pal. I had hoped to get sketches of roadrunners and cactus wrens. No such luck, though I saw both, but we did get to the Living Desert museum and were able to sketch some of the birds there, including this black vulture.

I saw I think four species of hummingbird (Costa’s, Anna’s, black-chinned, and a possible young or female rufous zipping by). I’m always surprised by how small the Costa’s is.

Verdins were everywhere. I didn’t paint one, but might work up a painting later from these sketches.

I don’t usually go to the desert to draw waterfowl, but these wigeon were just below my feet in one of the museum aviaries…

Ferruginous Hawk

Hope you’re not getting sick of ferruginous hawk sketches, because I’m certainly not getting sick of having one in the yard! We’ve had an awful lot of rain the past few days and this bird seems to be hoping for drowning gophers. I actually saw it hovering, something I knew red-tails did occasionally but had no experience of with ferruginous hawks…

Happy Solstice, everyone, and welcome back to the light…

Bird Sketching Workshop

This weekend was the Central Valley Birding Symposium. We went down this morning to catch John Muir Laws’ triple bird sketching extravaganza (passerines/waterfowl/raptors). I think I made a couple of breakthrough-level discoveries — time will tell, here — but even if I didn’t it was well worth it.

Reminders to get the bird’s posture direction, followed by body and head shape, check proportions, followed by contour angles, then finally getting into interior details — all things I tend to ignore apart from the last one — were so helpful. And tricks for not making raptor bills too big so they look like parrots. And for not scrunching feet with a lot more detail than the rest of the drawing…

We found some great-tailed grackles in a parking lot in Stockton and drew them. Funky birds, funky tails, funky calls. It was like being back in Texas…

Trying to Work Larger

I draw the size I see something, pretty much. So if it’s far away it’s small, if it’s close it’s large.

I am trying very hard to learn how to draw much larger than what I see. (If I master this I might try the other way around, but I have a lot of practice at drawing smaller birds and almost none doing giant ones.)

In this sketch, the bluebird is roughly the size I could see it; the yellowrump was bigger. Not significantly bigger, but we’re working on that….

Morphology

Birds spend a lot of the time twisting, moving their head around to look for food or predators. This hyperactive yellowrump was very active below the walnut tree, looking for insects kicked up by the morning sun.

There’s a puddle outside, left over improbably from the rain nearly two weeks ago. It’s attracting a lot of bathers and this robin reminded me of just what a pot belly they have….