After the worst bout of chilblains in my whole life, I actually have a growing collection of beautiful birds and beasties to show for it! Check out my NemobySea blog to find them all, it’s a little bit like a safari for me since getting a pair of binoculars in February. My fingers don’t thank me, but hopefully your eyes will!
There’s been a lot of gully goings on in my studio, lots of sketches, lots of paintings, tons of preparations. I’m hoping to make 2024 a big year for the gullies.
There doesn’t seem to be a lot of love for our big birdies, they are mostly seen as pests. Tearing open bin bags, being loud and stealing food from infants in pushchairs, the horror! I hope to master their deceptively simple form and do great things for them advocacy wise around the coast, they deserve it.
The winter has been brutal here on the South East coast of England, but there’s still some amazing things to see out there which I’ve documented on my NemobySea blog.
When I’m sitting in my hat and scarf inside my own home trying to keep warm, I often envy the plucky coastal birds hopping and skipping about, especially those happy go lucky redshanks which I’m excited to turn my brush to – stay tuned for that!
I’ve got very little time for personal art these days with my other projects, but I really love drawing and painting rabbits. So I thought I’d indulge myself and work on these guys over the autumn months.
I transferred these scratchy HB pencil drawings using my Huion light pad (yes, it’s still going!!) onto light 140lb Canson watercolour paper with black FW acrylic ink.
Whilst waiting for my watercolour paper to be cut to size, I’ve been sketching away on a precious friends tabby cat Pudding, and a rabbit of course! I’m using just basic Staedtler HB’s and 4B pencils on recycled 80 gsm paper.
The herring gulls have hatched and they are running rampant on our rooftops down here! I’ve painted these little guys on scrappy bits of watercolour for my free coastal blog. They’ve probably all fledged by now, but you can catch a couple more of these paintings in full fuzzball form over on NemobySea.com if this larger juvenile gully doesn’t quite call to you.
