patch perfect

Well the coupla meadows I adopted as my patch for this spring have got completely out of hand.  Monster floods have temporarily transformed them into something that would not look out of place in NE Poland.

Early signs were good with a bunch of Greenshank and other spp. organising themselves in a "T" -shape around a Med Gull

Then last week they were so far underwater a Black-necked Grebe was cruising about and giving me the three-fingered salute as I dropped in after work (so only an artist's impression available, painted very rapidly when I got home)

Black-necked Grebe, Suffolk

and now the water has drained off and we are overrun by gorgeous feeding, preening calling Wood Sandpipers:  10 on a little drying flash yesterday, which must be some kind of record

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Wood Sandpiper and Greenshank, Suffolk

and none of this to mention the also-rans: Short-eared Owl, Barn Owl, Marsh Harrier, Hobbies, Turtle Dove singing away

what a splendid week

ping!

I had an inkling this Bearded Tit project would go wrong, so took a photo of it at the half-way stage.  This was supposed to be the underpainting.... Since then a coat of creamy paint has gone on top and it just looked horrid, so I've binned the final version and kept this working version as a reminder- you can never stop a painting too soon!

the silver fox

These digital sculptings may not be the real thing from an artistic perspective- but definitely fun to do.  Here's a fox designed on computer using sculptris, then transmitted down the wires as a digital object to a 3D printer sculpteo , in this case to be rendered in silver.  They work their magic by rendering it in plastic to a few micro mm. below the intended size, then adding a layer of silver on top:  then finished beast despatched by post.

whitestripes

Two shots at getting this drake Garganey memorialised before new spring excitements wing their way in (I'm hoping Dotterel next, to continue the whitestripes theme). I played around with some angles on this one with head turned, but actually most of the time I was watching him, he was bang side-on: so I decided to paint him that way and not try to be clever.

Some very intriguing images as he fed his way through the reeds- filed away for another day.

enough with the Smews

windy day- Smew at Abberton

Into April and I have just about got the winter's Smew out of my system. The male-in-the-middle got more and more prominent as I trowelled on the paint, which was not quite the plan as per the rough draft in an earlier post. But I've decided to go with the flow and so here he is.

Gallery of Smew images here: edkeeble's smugmug (Smew)

Smew redux

I haven't quite got Smew fully out of my system this winter and already spring is jangling away and hard to ignore.  So one more shot at trying to capture the sleek bustle and fizz of Smew when they wake-up and slide into the margins to hunt.

It's early days on this one.  I still can't bring myself to slow-down and neatly draw in the birds when I start, so this time I thought I would allow myself a first uncontrolled thwack at the background, then crayon in the birds to ses what was happening.  Next step is to get some richer paint on, but that will have to wait until later in the week.  

Great Grey Shrike on the hunt

Not much of a winter in these parts, but some very wintry moments.  Here's the most local Great Grey Shrike on a murderous pursuit through an old oak hedge- done with marker pen and tippex on a bit of A4 from the wastepaper basket

then glued onto a board and some dabs of paint on top

job done in 15 minutes

more Great grey Shrike images here: ed keeble's smugmug