A Moor Bird

Pastel on pastel sketch paper.

3 Clowns

3 clowns all in a row. Pastel and coloured pencil. This was fabulous fun to do! This drawing was made for the November challenge at The Drawing Club from an excellent reference photo.

Virtual Sketch Date - November

Last month I found the Virtual Sketch Date blog two days after the deadline and I vowed that I would take part in November. But when I saw the reference I was a little overwhelmed by the seeming complexity of it - all those branches! So my first offering was to make a simple ink sketch and colour with watercolour - I went for representation rather than detail. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it - the vivid colours of the reference reminding me of an Autumn day in Sydney when the leaves are dropping but the sky is vibrant blue and it is hot, hot, hot. Then, tonight I decided to get out the pastels and try for a more painterly offering - it was a challenge but again I loved working with this colour combo and was both surprised and pleased with the result. Thanks to all at VSD for the opportunity to join in and I am looking forward to next month!

Caught

Some time ago I returned home with my family to find a small bird caught in the tree by our front door. It was struggling frantically, hanging upside down, trapped by a bright yellow thread that had wrapped around its foot and caught on a branch. My husband untied the panicked bird and escaped being bitten.

At the time I was going through a somewhat challenging emotional journey so the event had quite an impact and the image is still very solid in my mind. I thought I would attempt to record the incident on paper so I just grabbed the pastels and drew very quickly. I'm not thrilled with the result but it was a very good exercise and it felt good to draw without an immediate reference point.