Busy times at the shed!
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| There were nine males when I did the sketch, but ELEVEN by the time everyone had showed up for dinner...plus 5 or 6 females. |
I don't remember EVER seeing this many cardinals all in one place before...the males are quite territorial, but it's winter and we offer them lots of feeding options and different stations around the yard. I'm entranced by the bright colors and the interaction between them, and find myself sketching them again and again.
These are all graphite-free, no preliminary sketching, just hurrying to get it down.
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| How many cardinals can you see here? And there were MORE. |
wow!! how cool! and of course, your pages are gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jane! I couldn't find my earlier cardinal sketch from a month or so ago, I'll have to find where I filed it. (My filing system somehow makes it HARDER to find things!)
DeleteYou could do a mash-up! Find some reference photos of when you have snow and then add in the Cardinals. Assuming they come out to feed when there's snow on the ground?
ReplyDeleteOh yes, the feeders are REALLY busy when we have snow. You can see the sparrows and juncos a lot better against the white, too...last year was hugely snowy, one after another, and this year we've had one tiny one. Weird...
DeleteCardinals are one of our favorites! (Probably say that about all the birds, though....) We generally have between 5 and 10 of them/year, and this year it seems to have settled around 6ish.
ReplyDeleteLove your sketches!
They are extraordinary, as is your brushwork. I've never seen them IRL so I'm red with envy.
ReplyDeleteThe little birds are a welcome burst of color. And your colors are juicy and minimal brush stokes...delightful!
ReplyDeleteI was very much influenced, early on, by Chinese brush painting...I still like to play around with how few strokes I can use to capture what I see. And thanks all!
ReplyDeleteI envy your eye!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! I especially love the colors in the females.
ReplyDelete*sigh(
ReplyDelete