raptor revision

courtesy of Sussex Wildlife Trust

I’m not very good at drawing birds of prey, in that I struggle to get the proportions correct, and with raptors, proportion is everything. Especially the beak: the size, shape, and position of the beak is soooo important, and I find it’s so easy to make a BoP look like a parrot as even a super-sharp pencil is often too fat to get the fine tip of the beak to scale. Oh, and the eyes and brow ridge which gives that authentic predatory look; they are also tricky.

With this in mind, I signed up for Sussex Wildlife Trust’s Beginner’s Guide to Birds of Prey course (I think that link works…) as although I think yeah yeah I know all about British birds I am always surprised at how much I learn when I properly look at them. And I thought this would give me some homework to do, and I am always pathetically grateful when someone else takes responsibility for assigning tasks. It’s also nice to read Sussex-centric info about the various species.

Here are my sketchbook pages:

The Red Kite is on a page covered with elephant dung paper (yes really) as I used some ink on the page which bled through.

I have one of my faves, the Peregrine Falcon to look at today, and I’m also dropping into Inktober when the prompt inspires me.