There is a popular spot along the Wissahickon Creek in Philadelphia that includes a restaurant, parking, lots of people, and a quiet stretch of water. The quietness would attract ducks and geese to begin with but the addition of families throwing out bread to feed them makes it particularly attractive to them. This is Valley Green.
It's about 10 minutes away by car and I've been hoping to get up early enough to head over there and get an hour's drawing done from life before heading off to work. I did that today and the results are above. Subjects are primarily Canada Geese, Mallards, and stray pigeon or grackle. All are done from life without benefit of scope or binoculars. I used pencil with a bit of watercolor pencil and waterbrush.
All in all I'm pleased with them, especially the geese and the lone mallard. Probably more than anything they convince me of the tremendous possibilities in working from life.
2 comments:
Hey, we both had a geese sketching day :)
Love the lone mallard and the goose preening it's breast feathers! Their necks fascinate me.
Hi Pam,
I guess the rest of the world didn't get the memo about yesterday being "Draw a Goose" day!
Thanks for your comments. What was so enjoyable to me about this sketching trip was that there was no shortage of birds. They were all around me. I never got a chance to try the nearby grackles and house sparrows. Most of the time I'm just sitting or standing waiting for a bird to appear. So yesterday was a real treat.
I think both the necks and the huge breast of the Canada Goose are striking. They really are massive looking birds that have this somewhat delicate-looking neck. A study in contrast.
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