The weeks will begin to fly by now – only a few envelopes left to draw on and mail before I am drawing the real thing. I thought of this concept again this week as I drew these ravens from the Tower of London from a photo in a travel book.
Why ravens?
The ravens of the Tower of London are a group of seven captive Common Ravens which live in the Tower of London. The presence of the ravens is traditionally believed to protect the Crown and the Tower; a superstition holds that If the Tower of London ravens are lost or fly away, the Crown will fall and Britain with it .
I hope that I get the opportunity to see these amazing birds close up – I wonder if I can get close and will they will stay still enough? I am used to drawing birds that move around – seagulls and ibis as they move . Once you start sketching an object over and over again, you become familiar with it.
If I start sketching a seagull and it moves away, there will be one nearby that is sitting in a similar position or one will fly in soon or look at another bird to continue to see how the legs stand or long they are. I draw with the coloured pencil that is the main colour of the bird and make notes if it is a colourful bird, such as a rainbow lorikeet. There is not enough time to be swapping coloured pencils when drawing a bird (unless it is asleep) Hopefully the ravens will cooperate – if not I am looking forward to having some scratchy black ink crows on my page.
And this weeks travel drawing is of my London travel guide and my pencils. The page did not seem complete without them
