STUDIO WORK

Just finished off all the illustrations for the Spurn Bird Report and Yorkshire Bird Report which gives me a bit of a lift as I have all the time now to concentrate on the books. I've attached a Wryneck which will be reproduced in Spurn Wildlife, this is a quick photo of the painting! now to get on with the books! will post more on those next week!

BIRDING FRONTIERS - WINTER

Well, its all started again, the daunting but enjoyable task of working on the second in the series of the Birding Frontiers seasonal books. We are now starting the Winter edition and fingers crossed it will again be a great seller. There's nothing changed, same author designer and me and same format, a great design and layout by Chris Gaughan of Designwing. I work 4 chapters at a time, so basically I will line draw out all the four chapters, stretch the paper, draw up the 4 chapters and then paint! I've included my first draft line drawings of the large pipits which goes to Martin Garner for approval of shape etc! These will be revised and tweaked this weekend, I've stretched the paper and hopefully the first finished pencil lines will hit the paper on Monday!

GREAT WHITE EGRET

Irrespective of the forecast of gale force winds and rain I headed over to the Wirral with 2 target species, Purple Sandpiper and Hen Harrier. It was gale force winds at New Brighton,

the chance of sketching the Purple Sandpipers was zero as I could hardly stand up, a successful trip seeing two birds, moving onto Inner Marsh Farm RSPB I connected with a superb ringtail Hen Harrier close to the hide so the two target species were nailed. The bonus birds of the day were two Great White Egrets sheltering in the gale force winds in the long reedy grass, there was also a lovely low sun, one of the birds stayed relatively still for a few minutes allowing me the attached study.

NEW YEAR

Its going to be a busy 2015 with 3 books on the go, firstly after the hugely successful Birding Frontiers Autumn book we are now starting on the Winter version to be hopefully published and released at the next Rutland Bird Fair, also alongside this and in the same series I will be working on a Gulls book dealing with the large gulls. Finally the long awaited Birds of Spurn by Andy Roadhouse will be the final publication, I will be doing the cover of that and an internal spread. I will be starting the Birding Frontiers Winter book next week and will be doing weekly updates on the blog, the blog has been neglected but I have cut back on work this year to spend more time updating it on a weekly basis!
The study sheet below was undertaken yesterday at Newchurch Common in Cheshire of a Smew.

MASKED SHRIKE

A pencil sketch of the Masked Shrike at Spurn over the last few weeks.

BURTON MERE WETLANDS

Had a great trip to Burton Mere Wetlands RSPB last week, some great birds including Red-necked Phalarope, Cattle Egret, Little Stint, Curlew Sandpiper amongst many others. I 've started to sketch on single sheets of watercolour paper instead of a notebook, its far easier to move the sheet around and no centre seam!
The study below was the juv Red-necked Phalarope, not seen one for some years!

BIRDING FRONTIERS - Autumn

The last 6 months have been very hectic being the sole illustrator for Martin Garners Birding Frontiers - Autumn book, it has also been very satisfying and it was this sort of project which I was waiting for a long time! The book turned out to be the best selling book at the Rutland Bird Fair with great reviews and the success means the other seasons and family groups will be produced in the future, projects I am relishing!
This left me very little time to up date the blog, and revise the website but this is my priority now and will work it alongside the other books and artwork I will be undertaking. I've started by uploading some of the book, the cover original with the printed version beside it, this book would not have been as successful without the keen eye and high quality design and print by Chris Gaughan of Designwing and Swallowtail Press, two superb companies. I've also uploaded the Treecreeper chapter illustrations, indicating the differences between Northern and British Treecreeper and the other plate is Hen an Northern Harrier, both done in watercolour. Will upload some note book sketches later this week!