Work In Progress, Osprey, Lovers Key, Florida, Update 4

Now that I’ve completed the thumbnail composition and value sketches, and gotten feedback from the client, I’m ready to work up the full size pencil drawing. There are still some compositional questions for me when it comes to the final painting, though. I’m still not sure how to present the bird in the nest. Do I want some chicks, also? I want the background to be benign but I’m also thinking of some low, diffuse clouds, rather than a solid uniform color. I want to see what the background might look like with some light clouds before trying it with paint. I suggested a misty, cloudy background in one of the value thumbnails and that composition interested me. I also want to be sure the values I worked out look good in the full size drawing. It looks more and to me that I’m going to have to produce a full size pencil drawing with a lot of detail. That will reduce surprises and uncertainties to a minimum. It’s a lot more work but I feel more comfortable with it and well worth the extra time.
I started working up a full size composition, 28” X 19”, in pencil on tracing paper. First, I blocked in the nest area in the bottom right, along with some foliage that might be present in the upper parts of the trees. Rather than draw the bird in flight directly on that same sheet, I blocked it in on a separate sheet of tracing paper. Once I was sure of the size and shape I placed it under the tracing and moved it around until I liked the position relative to the nest. Then I retraced it onto the sheet with the nest. After that I added more detail without any shading.
As I was drawing the bird in flight I kept comparing its size to the nest to get the relative sizes right. I found that I had to increase the size of the nest some, so I kept adding on to it.
After getting the bird in flight to a stage I was happy with, I decided to work on the nest. There’s a great deal of detail in that nest – a great many twigs and branches inter-twinned and woven into a massive and solidly built structure. Rather than work all that out on the final good paper (and have to erase and re-work) I worked it all out in the pencil drawing. I added shading as I filled it all in to see how the lighting would play on the twigs. The light is coming from the right side and is fairly low in the sky. That will make the right side of the birds and nest (and twigs, etc) lighter. The cloudy background will eliminate strong lighting but still allow lights and darks and shadows. I wanted to see if my mind’s eye view of the scene would be equaled by my pencil work.
Composition 1 shows a side view of the bird in the nest. In Composition 2 I tried a frontal view of the bird. I then went to a back view in Composition 3. You’ll notice the size of the nest also increases from Composition 1 to Composition 3 as I decided it had to be larger. In the end I preferred the side view of the nesting bird (Composition 1). I also decided to add two chicks to the nest. They’re barely visible above the nest but can be seen on closer observation. The final positions and poses can be seen in Composition 4. I felt that the back view presented too large a bird in the nest. It began to compete for interest. The frontal view just wasn’t all that interesting. I preferred the side view where the bird was lower and not so imposing. Its shape pointed toward the bird in the air – the center of interest. I pointed its head upward also toward the bird in flight – and it looks that way, guiding the viewer’s eyes in that direction. In Composition 4 we see the same side view but with chicks added. They also look upward toward the bird in flight. You can see in Composition 4 that the nest has been increased in width. It looks more like it can accommodate all the birds.
Once I was sure of the placement and sizes I started to work up the pencil drawing on tracing paper. This is where I added all the detail and values. I just started adding the detail to Composition 4. As I worked this drawing up I felt the drawing was too large, that I was including much more than I need to on both sides. The original drawing was 28” X 19”. I cut out a couple of frames from white drawing paper to see how the picture would look in other sizes. I like the look of the 20” X 16” because it seems more intimate, as it focuses on the subjects. But I’m not 100% sold yet and will keep comparing the different proportions until I am. Weigh in on the sizes if you wish. What size do you prefer – and why?
Pencil Composition 3 shows the drawing nearly finished. All the detail is complete for the nest, the mama bird in the nest and most of the bird in flight. The background sky is nearly complete also. I’m happy with the values and the lights and darks of the clouds in the background seem to help tie the bird in flight and the nest birds together. The lower left is still incomplete and I am debating how much of that to include. There is a nice diagonal composition here and I don’t want the lower left to destroy that. I may work up that corner on an overlay to see what I think.
Next week I’ll show the completed pencil drawing. Then it’s time to start painting!