BLACK AND TURKEY VULTURES

All through the fall and now well into winter I have been watching vultures overhead. I see them most times that I go to the reserve but frankly they can be see anywhere and at any time around here. Turkey Vultures are slightly more commonly seen than Black Vultures so I tend to do more drawings of them. Here, however is a pen and ink drawing of a Black Vulture gliding away.

After much looking at vultures in the field, I first draw them using a pencil in my sketchbook then do them again in ink. When the ink is dry, I erase the pencil lines. This Turkey Vulture was the first one I did in this series.

I did these two in slightly more detail (and larger) trying to be aware of the shades on the actual birds since using ink, you only have one color to work with. Various ways of cross-hatching create greys and one can modulate form this way. It is an interesting way to work and I used to do a lot of this kind of work.

These birds are the perfect subject for the medium of pen and ink as they are mostly shades of black and white (only Turkey Vultures have a bit of color with their red heads and legs) so it was a very enjoyable exercise.

I kept most of these ink drawings are quite small - about a quarter of a page each in my sketchbook.