Monday, March 10, 2014

EASTERN BUZZARD



I recently completed this portrait of an Eastern Buzzard (a race of the Common Buzzard). The bird had been cared for by the late Jim Ades in Hong Kong prior to its release so I was able to do quite a large series of sketches and drawings along with taking a few pics - all were helpful in creating this painting. As is my usual practice, a careful drawing was followed by washes of brown and yellow to build up the background tones. When this had dried, I started with the head then as this began to come to completion, followed with the underparts and wing. I left the painting for quite some time and when I came back to it, I could see that there were only a few areas that needed attention before I could call it finished. Mostly this was a case of darkening some of the markings on the nape and breast followed by some smaller details around the eye. Size is 11" x 15", watercolor on Arches paper.

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