I brought some grain to the wild birds at Quidi Vidi lake this mornings. As I stood at the edge of the water and threw a handful of grain onto the shoreline, it was like a wave of humanity moving towards me as first pigeons, then seagulls and finally ducks swarmed towards me. It reminded me of Trafalger Square in London where I had taken my daughter when she was small. The birds there literally covered us trying to steal a piece of grain. Quidi Vidi was like this, but with the addition of seagulls who are loud and aggressive.
The pigeons were agile and completely covered the ground, mixed into the water's edge with ducks of all sizes and shapes. A lone goose patrolled the shoreline staying out of the fray and not interested in any food offerings, preferring to herd smaller ducklings into order.
My luxury find of the day was fresh figs. Its so rare to find them here that I snapped up a box of them then took them home to play with light and colour for future drawings and painting and ate 3 in a row! These are Brown Turkey figs from California and they taste divine.
Finally, I added more layers to the dog portrait and tried to adjust the nose level which was off a little. I'm still working on the it and the background as well as building the fur. Coloured pencil isn't a fast process but this seems to be moving along.Technorati tags: ducks, quidi vidi, seagulls, figs, art, coloured pencil, dog, portrait
2 comments:
Oh yes, there was chaos at the lake :)
I'd highly recommend a fresh fig Robin. I'm a fruit fanatic, so it was like finding treasure. Lucky you to have them on your doorstep.
I'm struggling with this background and have to say that I quite dislike it. However, I've added more layers and now its fairly dark. I think your idea of dusty blue is a good one, but its too late to try it now. Sigh.
Your pictures are always so good, Jeanette. The figs are just the perfect still life. I hope to see a sketch of those.
Your dog portrait shows the love with which it is executed.
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