Canada Geese Finished

First image today is the finished version of my Three Geese. I decided I just needed to get this done so spent most of Sunday late afternoon/evening working on the fore and middle ground of this piece. At this point I consider it done and have sprayed it with fixative. I am pleased with how it came out, and know that even 2 years ago I probably wouldn't have managed it so well. All these weeks/months of live model drawing sessions are paying off. Well at least I think so anyway. Aren't they a hansom trio of geese? Done on Stonehenge paper with graphite pencils, 2B, 2H, and H, size is approx 9.0 x 7.0 inches

For those who don't follow my blog the drawing is based on a photograph I made last December at Daniel Webster Audubon Sanctuary in Marshfield, MA. I had purchased a new lens for my camera and wanted to try it out. I got lucky with this photograph and fell in love with it. Now I have it as a drawing.

Yesterday was a beautiful day here in MA, at least weather wise, sunny and warm, with temps in the upper 60's and even hitting 70 in some areas. Before my outing to my drawing session last night I made a visit to Daniel Webster, my first in a couple of weeks.

On the surface not much has changed in the 2 weeks since my last visit, trees are still bare and the fields are still winter brown. But the birds are singing their hearts out and make quite a bit of noise as they stake out territory for the coming breeding season. And at the pond it looks like all of the turtles are back out of hibernation. The tree stump had 13 turtles on it. My top sketch in the Journal is a quick version of the 13 all trying for their spot in the sun.

The bottom sketch shows a bird investigating one of the many bird houses at Daniel Webster. This house is in the man made pond area. I think the visitor was a song sparrow, but between the shade of the bird house roof and the sun shinning off feathers I am not entirely sure, it was a little brown bird that much I can say for sure.

My other high point yesterday was seeing a blue bird feeding in the fields near the Fox Hill observation point. I tried making photos, but the bird was just a bit too far for me to make any good ones. It would perch on an electrical wire observing the fields, then it would swoop down into the grasses for a bit then fly back up to either a wire or a tree branch of the only tree out there and repeat the process. I was thrilled, I have caught glimpses of blue birds before, but never to truly recognize one, the way I could yesterday.

Above is last nights figure drawing. Not sure how I feel about this one. I was trying to work the figure a bit larger than I did last week, and as a result am not sure if I have it all correct. Also I feel I could have done a better job on her face, but she kept shifting her head slightly, and the light was such that even a small shift changed the shadows. Still not too bad, at least she looks human.

Above is the photo I used as reference for my sketch of the 13 turtles. Not sure if the resolution will let you count them, but take my word for it there are 13 of these guys all packed onto this one stump.

That is it for today. Per usual comments are always welcome.