a day in November that was not grey

It's taken a while to finish this one, but here is an absolutely zinging cold and bright day at Walberswick (unique winter residence of Spotted Redshank and Twite) last November.

Spotted Redshank and Twite at Dunwich shore pools

The canvas is about 20" high, so getting in some recognisable Twite that look OK but don't stick out from the background like little rub-on transfers was a challenge:  here's where I ended up, with each bird rendered across no more than about 15 stitches of canvas.

...and some beasts of winter

winter has arrived

Never mind close-ups from a hide:  here's a Water Rail scuttling for cover in a frozen marsh

Water Rail in winter

what every partridge knows..

is that when a Peregrine flies over, you have to crouch and not budge an inch for at least 10 minutes, even if you are taking a short-cut across a muddy estuary.

But not every partridge knows that there is an exception to the do-not-budge rule, if the tide is coming in..

This story had a happy ending, with the bedraggled partridge coming to its senses and floundering to shore after 25 minutes.

which way with Waxwings?

The unsolved question- whether to concentrate on the dumpy repeated forms in a flock of Waxwings, or take one and concentrate on the burst of colour and activity.

This one started as a thoughtful study of tone and form, but it didn't work without the flash of colour to tie it all up- so out with the juice gun and some festive lettering to finish off.  

krapwings

Still having a bit of a struggle..I had grand plans for a deeply-coloured and ultra-wet pic of three Lapwings on the high tide last weekend, but it went all insipid on me thus:

So in retaliation I grabbed a marker pen and laid them out on the yellow card from my trusty pack of file dividers, with few dabs of Tippex.  Better, but not there yet.

in front

This one's all about the overlap between the beast of a Great Black-backed Gull and the Redshank- I reversed along the harbour wall until I had the gull's beak just intersecting the Redshank's leg, like a little bit of crossed sword heraldry and (with colour) that should be the focus of the image.

One more on a recycled file divider:  I guess you can buy pre-coloured paper or card that will take paint properly, but I haven't found it yet.