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I went out to the Minnesota Valley Wildlife Refuge to see a botanical art show. I met up with a friend. She couldn't stay and sketch, but walked around a bit after the show talking with me. I was oohing and ahhing about the Sandhill Crane taxidermy specimens up on a tall display and then I remembered that she is afraid of birds. She said the rustling nose of birds really put her nerves on edge. That's when I realized again, how fortunate I am. I find the rustling noise of birds one of the most calming noises in the world. I'm fortunate that something I find so beautiful is also not frightening in the least to me.
And I'm also fortunate in my friends, who despite their own inclinations or disinclinations as the case may be, constantly indulge me in the pursuit of my passions. Unfortunately the specimens were all too high for me to sketch. My neck just doesn't work that way any more, and there was no clear space on the floor to recline and still see the shelved specimens from any unobstructed angle. I ended up taking a couple photographs with my digital camera. Later, at home, I threw the image up onto my computer screen and painted the watercolor version using a black Derwent Inktense watersoluble pencil and watercolor. Then I flipped the image on my screen and sat back and sketched it in pen only. I was using a Staedtler Pigment Liner (probably an 03) and I got a really nice dry line quality across the slightly cold press texture of this paper. There was a tab at this spread because earlier I'd removed a page to make room elsewhere for collage material. I wanted to keep the paint from rubbing off onto the ink sketch so I glued in a piece of translucent paper with a slight striped pattern. |
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Illustration © 2006 Roz Stendahl; All Rights Reserved |