Little steps are the beginning? And sheep.

No clear cut plan here. I just need to start drawing again, even if it's just a doodle here, another there.

P.s. And  because the face of that sheep seemed quite off, I did a couple of sketches with photographs I took from sheepherding a couple of weeks back. Time to study how a sheep is constructed for real instead of guesswork. Time to start drawing to learn!

Face studies of sheep.

Long time, no draw

But now it hit. Drawing inspiration. Naturally in the middle of the night. So I did this, thinking it would be a quick sketch. Must've worked on it for almost/at least two hours in the end. Time to sleep?

Nope. Original inspiration Niuniu's pal, a young lapponian herder. Original inspiration. Not sure if it looks like him in the end. Started off without any reference, when placing the markings looked at a photo.

This one needs tons of work. Niuniu's sister,watching over some reindeer. It's not quite there yet. And her face looked more "right before I colored in the color areas and the eye. Something's off now.

Christmas card to a friend

I said I didn't send any Christmas cards this year...but I did send one. Albrecht Dürer Watercolor pencils on cardboard.

Samoyed & Orange Cat

A good friend of mine loves samoyeds. Faber Castell Albrecht Dürers on dark blue cardboard.

And the same friend's friend wanted to see a kitty drawn by me.

Some more quick drawings

"Náhani's Song"

My favorite wolf of all time, Náhani from In the Shadow of a Rainbow (a true story). When the urge to draw Náhani hit me last night, I was suprised by my inability to remember ever having drawn her.

Should not have complained about the amount of the shades of purple in this set of pencils, I ended up using all of them on this quick drawing of a pair of Lesser white-fronted geese at a seashore meadow, in the moonlight, male alert and checking out some suspicious sound. This idea could be developed into a painting. Soma day.

Andalusian

Just a quickie for a friend, experimenting some more with light on black.

Faber Castell Albrecht Dürer Watercolor Pencils

Faber Castell Albrecht Dürer pencils on tinted cardboard. Reference photograph found on google used and slightly modified.

So I went and got myself a set of proper color pencils. I was surprised to find out the art supply store I assumed is supposed to be biggest in our city only had Derwent pencils. And those aren't to my taste. Except for Derweent Drawing, which is soft and precice enough, but consists of only 24 colors - nice earth colors though, unfortunately only 12 color set available here, I have it, love it, but it's not enough - you can't color a sky blue sky with two dusky grayish blues, or fresh green grass with olive hued greens.

I had two options when setting out on my pencil quest, both water color pencils. Faber Castell Albrecht Dürer and Caran D'Ache Supracolor. Latter wasn't available, so I eventually got the Faber Castell ones - fortunately available at a big book store.

Now the logic behind the colors chosen for each set is beyond me. What do people use pencils for? I mean, who needs 4 purplish blues and only one real blue? Finally the 24 color set seemed to give enough usable colors, a set which I then broadened with 6 additional pencils I bought separately (two earthy greens, one flesh pink, one blue and two browns).

I've been playing with my pencils now and quite honestly love them! Though I haven't yet tried them on white paper. First started on black paper, then did the above fjord on grayish tinted paper. Nice change to be building up the colors with a dark base. Haven't yet tried out the watercolor side of these pencils - one step at a time.

Did some horse studies the other day (with some old color pencil). The one above is made without looking at a reference. I concluded it wasn't right, got Ernest Thompson Seton's Art Anatomy of Animals and checked what went wrong, hence the below "study".

This morning I woke up too early, couldn't sleep anymore. So first tried out if I could draw a hoopoe. I guess I kind of can...but not too happy. Have to give it another try to be completely happy.

Then Niuniu...without watching the model. She gets uncomfortable if I draw live, so started this off "out of memory". It's unfinished still. Work in progress. We'll see, when I'll finish it.

It's been a while...but finally, some new drawings!

This is a self portrait. Note my favorite boots, the Rokka rubber boots! Very warm in winter! Keeping your toes warm is crucial, when birding in wintery Finland!

These were actually a part of a farther's day card I made with my little sister, each bird representing one family member. Lil' sister did the rest of the family, I did three. (Yes, the dogs had their own birds as well, sister did those.)

It became a fun card.

More older stuff

Here's still some older scetches from winter 2006-2007. The nuthatch was an exciting lifer, ands such a cutie, I did loads of drawings of it. The mistle thrush was drawn based on memory of a picture taken by a fellow birdwatcher.

The Black-throated thrush, another lifer, for which I had to walk quite a distance. But the bird was most definitely worth the walk.

Dipper must be one of my favorite birds. This drawing is again drawn memory based of a picture.

I'm a huge fan of woodpeckers, the Three toed being one of my favorites. This one was preening and drumming in a dry tree.