Happy Labor Day to everyone here in the States. I am hoping you don't have to work, but if you do, hope it is at least a good day for you. Here in MA. we will have a lovely partly sunny day while we wait for the remains of the latest Hurricane to drop a couple of inches of rain on us in the next couple of days. We can use the rain, though we haven't been as dry as the central US, and hopefully won't have the flooding they have down in the Gulf States.
Above is another of my mallard duck drawings. I was up at the Trailside Museum in the Blue Hills over the weekend and was photographing mallards. I managed to capture some different poses with the ducks this week so I thought it would be fun to draw one. A fairly quick drawing done in my sketchbook. The male mallards are starting to molt into their breeding plumage. The one above is starting to darken through the head and lighten through the under body/back.
Above are a couple of photos of mallard males, the lower photo was made this weekend and the top one last winter when the males were totally in breeding colors. Not sure that the lower male was the same one that I used for my drawing, there were several in various states of molting, but you get the idea. A couple of weeks ago all the males looked pretty much like the females except for their bills, female bills have black/dark areas on them.
I am slowly working in the Nature Journal trying to catch up. Not making a lot of headway, but at least I am not getting further behind. Above page is from a visit to Daniel Webster back in July. A glossy Ibis was back for a visit and feeding in the shallows.
The top drawing is of the tree trunk. You can tell from the amount of exposed trunk that the the water level in the Panne had really fallen that week. We have since had rain and it was back up a bit higher these past couple of weeks.
A figure drawing from one of the Monday night drawing sessions in August. I almost have her face as a portrait, It wasn't an easy pose for her to hold and she was able to hold it quite well. Scott seems to be into no frills poses since he got back from VT. I look forward to seeing what is in store for us tonight.
Here is the photo of the Glossy Ibis that I used as reference for my journal page. I didn't get the head shape quite correct, but I suppose it doesn't matter too much.
That is it for today. Per usual comments are always welcome.
Another interesting post and some wonderful sketches! nancy
ReplyDeleteYou've done some beautiful sketches! Even some live nude. That's the way to celebrate a labor day!
ReplyDeleteNancy and Stefano thanks for your comments, I had a good evening out at my figure drawing session, not sure about the drawing, but otherwise the evening was good.
ReplyDelete