Category Archives: duck

UK holiday – nature sketches

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During my recent one month holiday in the UK we visited five cities. I was sketching all the time, filling two and half sketchbooks with my watercolour pencil and Lamy Safari ink pen sketches. All of these are gradually being added to my Flickr album online. 

However, just because we were in cities, does not mean that all the sketches were of  man-made objects. Today’s blog shows the nature sketches 

some we happened upon in parks 

in Nature Reserves 

These deer sat right next to the fence and posed for us in the Deer Grove at Magdelene College, Oxford.  I sketched them for a long time and there are three pages of sketches in my book. 

or collected along the way 

 

These were drawn in the hotel over a few nights, so I could spend time on the detail.

 

A special visit to Tiggywinkles Hospital

and sadly, one found dead on the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol

 

 

These all added to the richness and memories of the holiday. 

 

 

a visit to the waterbird habitat

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This past week of Christmas holidays has been very busy and I have filled many pages of my sketchbook.  For this blog I decided to share one little series of sketches from a  morning walk.

28Dec15 ducks cropped

My mother and I had promised my nephew (age 9) that we would visit the local waterbird habitat and sketch the ducks. He had been there recently and videoed them. On the video he bravely started to name the ducks and then decided they were all called Geoffrey. (They are Australian Wood Ducks)

 

28Dec15 ducks2cropped 3

Unfortunately when Mum & I visited, there were hardly any ducks in sight. We sketched what we could. The ducks in the above sketch may be Geoffrey 5, Geoffrey 27 and Geoffrey 341.

28Dec15 sketcher

After a while I gave up and sketched the sketcher. Mum stayed still for ages !

28Dec15 ducks3

Then a family arrived with bread and the ducks came out of nowhere but moved a lot.  Sketches completed, the day was warming up, so we headed home.

Below are some links to more duck and nature pages I have previously sketched

I enjoy drawing nature and you can view some more of my Nature Drawing on my Flickr site

I have sketched and written about another  duck . The Pacific Black Duck

some previous step by step drawing blogposts on drawing feathers and nests

Drawing a Tawny Frogmouth feather

Drawing feathers

Drawing a small nest

and of course, Greeting cards featuring my feather and nest drawings are available to purchase on my Etsy online store

 

Pacific Black Duck – Australia


Fitzroy Gardens , Melbourne

I am fortunate that the first part of my walk to work in Melbourne city is through the beautiful Fitzroy Gardens, with its traditional English plantings and ponds. I have discovered here are a few families of birds that live there : two Australian wood duck families, one with ducklings that are just past their fluffy stage,  peewees (mudlark), a kookaburra and magpies, crows and my favourite duck…


the Pacific Black Duck.
 
I liked the descriptions online that call it a sociable and a dabbling duck.  
 
The Pacific Black Duck is found in all but the most arid regions of Australia. Outside Australia, its range extends throughout the Pacific region. The Pacific Black Duck is one of the most versatile of the Australian ducks. It frequents all types of water, from isolated forest pools to tidal mudflats. The Pacific Black Duck is closely related to the Mallard (Source  http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/species/Anas-superciliosa)


 

 

 

I know where to find them by the pond and how close I can get to them on land before they dive into the water. The more I draw them the more familiar I become with the shape of their body and head – the curves and subtleties that give them their form and character.

 
I also know immediately which colour of watercolour pencils (Walnut Brown. Burnt Umber and Ivory mixed with a little Yellow) to use to draw them. I can pick the colours out of my pencil wrap and start straight away !
 
 
 
It has a dark body, and a paler head with a dark crown and facial stripes. There is an iridescent green patch on the wing. This is when the Derwent Inktense Teal Green comes out of the box !