I was digging through a bag of stuff today and came upon a sketch book from, I think, possibly 1985  or there about, perhaps 1986, it would have been my last year, or perhaps the previous one, at University in Cardiff Studying for an honours degree in art. 

Anyway, it's full of field sketches, and brings back quite a few memories, not all of them good I must admit. To be honest, it was quite hard being an aspiring wildlife artist at University during a period when modernism was, as the art critic would say "in vogue". 

I didn't always see eye to eye with my lecturers and tutors.

With hindsight, and a good few years under the expanding belt, I wish perhaps I'd been a little more receptive to their teachings, I seem to find little things they tried to tell me making more sense all these years on.

Never mind, I did manage to take on board enough to get a respectable degree, and I did learn a lot about drawing, or, to be more precise, seeing.

This page of sketches was made whilst watching the Great Crested Grebe's at Roath Park lake in Cardiff, and seeing it again after all these years makes me smile, theres little passages of drawing in there that I'd still be pleased with if I'd made them today, for example the little doodle of the chap on the bank flexing his wings.

That park featured a lot those three years, on my Sunday mornings in particular. There were always Mute Swans, Grebes, Mallards, and both Greylag and Canada Geese to watch and draw, and with Cardiff being coastal, a variety of Gulls too.

The first time I ever saw a Great Crested Grebe was with my Uncle David, on a trip to Coate Water park in Swindon when I was perhaps 10 or 11 years old.

I was fascinated by them, then and I still am now, they're such an odd mix of elegance and gawk, and I still find those oddly tense moments watching and waiting to see where they will pop up from a dive quite magical.

So...I've been working digital a lot lately, I've tended to sing its praises as I love how editable creations are, as long as you have a good graphics tablet, such as a Wacom, most of the time you don't feel you're working any differently to when you have a 2B pencil in your hand, except when you need to make a correction, its complete, no smudge or immovable residue. 

But...I don't know exactly why, maybe it was because I'd read an article debating wether digital art is art at all, and it upset me a little, because I realised that there really are a number of people out there who take a photograph, feed it into Adobe Lightroom, apply a few filters and....Hey presto! 

And actually, in itself that doesn't offend me, quite the opposite, I think many of these people are very talented photographers and photo manipulators.

I just feel there needs to be a degree of honesty, and most show it in buckets! I follow such a brilliant chap on Flickr, who is totally transparent about the process he uses, and the results are stunning, but he doesn't call them digital paintings, because that is not what they are.

Anyway, the offshoot of all this, is I had the compelling urge to put down my digital pen, and take up a good old fashioned graphite writing stick of the 2B variety.

I'd been planning to do a series of drawings of bird of prey heads, (birds of prey having always as you know been a favourite subject) for some time, but I'd been thinking to use a digital emulation of a pencil, instead I sharpened up a faithful Derwent 2B (another fave) squared up to an A4 sheet of Derwent paper, and got to work, and heres the resulting drawing in progress shot.

I've surprised myself actually, I instantly remembered all the lovely subtle advantages of an actual pencil, the wonderfully fine shading possible, and the sheer sense of joy at the lovely tactile materials in the hand.

I get the feeling I may be dusting off the oil pallet quit soon.

Anyway, Peregrines are one of just about everybody favourite birds of prey, and no wonder eh? If you've ever seen one either in the wild or at a falconry display you'll know the "Buzz" of watching one is fantastic, the speed and precision of their flight is legendary, and rightly so!

Add to that the beautiful blue grey plumage, the contrasting bright yellow spectacles, cere and feet, add the beautiful barring on the breast, and it all adds up to a stunning bird of prey.

Nottingham University has a 3 webcams watching a pair of Peregrines nesting on the University building at the moment, and I seriously recommend a look, it offers a chance to observe these wonderful birds in a way we are not normally able to do, the eggs hatched a couple of days ago, of course, I wasn't watching at the time :-)

Sparrowhawks have a very special connection for me. 

I began studying with Ronn Hill, at Orpheus Studios in the Vale of the White Horse, during my last year at primary school, and under his tuition, had earned a silver award from The Royal Drawing Society's Children's Royal Academy, for 'Studies of a Hawk' (three studies of a Sparrowhawk) by the age of 13. 

Later, when specialising in wildlife and bird art at University, new studies of a Sparrowhawk featured as part of my degree show.

This is my latest painting of a Sparrowhawk, its also a print available on my website and Facebook shop.

These fantastic little birds of prey are incredibly agile in flight, capable of navigating their way through woodland branches at breakneck speed. I've been standing at a bus stop near woods, and just spotted a little Sparrowhawk flitting skilfully through the crowd without anyone even being aware, quite fantastic.

Magpies are another great favourite of mine, they are so intelligent, you really don't have to watch them very long to realise this.

I've been fascinated with them, and the whole Crow family in fact, since I was very young, my grandmother on my mothers side used to tell me story's of the antics of birds she had kept as pets as a child, I have to say I don't know how she came to be keeping a wild species as a pet, perhaps she had adopted injured birds, certainly they had a reputation as pests in those days.

Of course there was also THAT rhyme we all knew as children.

One for sorrow,

Two for joy,

Three for a girl, 

And four for a boy,

Five for silver,

Six for gold,

Seven for a secret never to be told.

I'm pretty sure it was that rhyme that was to blame for the locals in Oxfordshire saying "Hello Sir, hows the missus" whenever confronted by a solitary Magpie. I was often told it was because one Magpie was bad luck, which could be avoided by the assumption that the birds mate was not too far away.

Magpies are of course NOT bad luck, and recent study has revealed that their reputation as thieves of shiny objects is equally unfounded in truth.

Just a highly intelligent and likeable bird, just like the other members of the Crow family.

Nuthatches are one of my favourite small birds, they are easily spotted once an initial identification has been made, with a highly distinctive arrowhead like shape, and highway mans mask like stripe through the eyes.

 

Where ever there are Oak trees there is a high possibility you will find Nuthatches flitting form branch to branch with an endearing jittery nature that simply makes them fascinating to watch.

 

I tend to find myself more of a bird watcher than bird spotter, of course it is exciting when a bird you've not spotted before is seen, but I find I get so much more from simply observing the behaviour and nature of different species and building an understanding of just how unique each is.

 

Incidentally, where you see Nuthatches, it is also worth keeping and eye out for Treecreepers, I find they often exist side by side in the same haunts, and while perhaps not as pretty as Nuthatches, display some of the most unique and fascinating behaviour.