I did few sketches of Horned Larks in a row, as I was getting ready to do a painting of a group of them running in the snow. While on a family outing looking for a Snowy Owl reported near here, I got several photos of the larks.
Like many of my sketches, I did this one while waiting for the kids at karate. I typically have an hour to get something accomplished there. Sometimes when I rush bird drawings, there’s a tendency to make the heads bigger, and this one suffered from that. When I opened up the sketchbook again it was blatantly obvious. Who drew this?! The heads are huge! With all the interruptions and distractions encountered while drawing at the dojo, they totally got out of scale. Before committing to the painting, I fixed them. Above are the sketches as they appeared—for better or worse—in the sketchbook. Hey, revision is an important part of any finished piece of art! I finished the painting recently, so it will be posted soon.
My photos were taken from our minivan. I know so many people, mostly men, who hate minivans. I don’t really get it. As a matter of fact, I love them! I can fit a full sheet of plywood in the back or 4 mountain bikes. Space is always plentiful. I’ve found that vehicles can be fantastic photo blinds for some types of wildlife, and I’m not alone. There are all sorts of commercially available window mounts for attaching cameras and spotting scopes to vehicles. A bean bag or folded heavy coat over the open window often does the job quite well. Many birds and other wildlife simply don’t consider a car to be a threat and will allow you to approach incredibly close. The only downside I see is that it’s seldom comfortable being twisted around to take photos for any extended period of time. You know, they really need swiveling seats in these minivans… but that would be decadent.
