This guy just looked crazy, like he was doing some kind of Voodoo on the bird ahead of him. I couldn't get the other bird in, who looked like he was hunching his shoulders in and running, so I represented him with a feather. He was on the beach in Sanibel.
This poor bird didn't make it despite all the care he was given by the local children. They found him on the ground and he was a sorry sight in deed. I think this is my niece holding him. I decided to keep this one at home. All the bird photographs for this trade are from my own family photos. I am finding it harder this time to send out the finished cards. I keep thinking, I want to keep that one, and that one, and.........you get the point. I also kept two of the wood ones as they were a bit simple when separated out. (the neck and the front chest)
I do have the sketches that I started with so I suppose that if I get too sentimental I can redo them. This is the other page of sketches.
The gossip pack here was a challenge for me as there were so many and they are such a light colour. I ran into some problems like being a bit too heavy with my pencil on out lining. The birds are a very soft gray and slightly darker on the bottom with white flecks. I think they are called guineas, but I wouldn't quote me on that.
These two are a beautiful rust colour. My colours are a bit nicer than this photo shows, but I am thinking I could still have used more layers. The farm birds are from pictures taken at my cousins farm in Michigan.
I had to show the photograph for this curious guy, because I know my drawing looks funny. I was trying to recreate the dappled shade that the swan was standing in. Not an easy task as I found out. Both drawings are CP on drafting film.
This little guy was Gracie's toy bird, one of her first toys. This thing lasted for ages, which is always a big surprise for dog toys. The challenge on this one was to keep the toy looking yellow and still having shape and form.
Here is a Cardinal, the picture was taken out our back door. There were a couple of challenges here. One was getting the feeling of a lot of branches, without losing the bird as focus. Another was showing snow on the branches, while at the same time having snow in the background.
This tree is about a foot outside my front window. It is an over grown ornamental White Pine (if I remember correctly). The birds just love it for nesting in and the cats next door just love that they do! I am not sure if this was the mother or an older baby. The challenge here was the grayish-brown colour of the bird and the bit of sunlight shining through the tree lighting up the front of the bird.
I wanted to try something different with this one. I wanted to be minimalist, having a sweeping s curve fading off to the sides. Well I didn't do so great but every body has to start somewhere. I knew I wanted the hen to be the main focus, as this is a bird trade, and I didn't want to go into the detail of his face. I also so admire a piece of art work with empty space, yet I always seem to fill in the whole page. So......here is my start to white space. This was done on drafting film with CP. 
This is one of my cousins kids. He raised his own set of chickens, I can't remember what kind, but they are small and fluffy and they have tiny eggs. It was a riot seeing him playing with his toys and holding one of the hens at the same time.
This bird was waiting off shore for some fish to swim by. The pictures I used are from our trip to Sanibel Island. I used drafting film for these two. I rough sketched the birds on printer paper, then put the drafting paper over top. This allowed me to put the colour in without having to transfer the drawing. A big time saver, as I am down to my last week. I have 9 left to finish now.
This guy already caught his fish and had him up on shore. A good thing as he dropped it a couple of times. The background is the beach with small shells everywhere. I wanted to catch that look with out tons of detail. My bird looks a bit cartoonish to me.
This was going to be 18 cards, done as a study of the pair of Mallard ducks, but I started looking at the female, she is going to take a lot of work. She might look all brown, but close up she is very detailed!
I do believe I am taking the thinking cap back out and doing something else for the rest of the cards.
I did these cards on plywood again, it is neat seeing how it affects the drawing. I had a hard time with the green on his head, it is very dark yet glows in the light. I did an underpainting in red to help push the darks.
I think I had some success with my Mallard Study and I got to try out some new things. I tried making gray for the birds side feathers using colours other than gray. I pushed myself for detail with the duck butt and did a fair job of it despite my whining (not quite as happy with the chest and back, despite same said whining!) Oh well it is all learning and I am off to do 11 more cards!
