My first carving teacher, Maria LaGoy, told me sketching birds - even if my sketches were terrible - would improve my carving because I would learn to see details. While sketching, I've noticed details that might otherwise slip by unseen. For example, while sketching a greater yellowlegs the bird vomited! Not the most useful information in the world, but if a child ever asks me whether birds throw up I can answer YES with conviction!
I made a more helpful observation while sketching harlequin ducks feeding in the ocean off Rockport, Massachusetts on a sunny winter day. While a duck was actively feeding it held its tail up while floating on the ocean between dives, but when it had eaten its fill the bird relaxed its tail and head. That tidbit will be useful when I carve a harlequin duck.
On a summer afternoon I was watching common eiders at Liberty Point on Campobello Island in Canada when two men appeared with a park ranger. The men were lichen experts on their way to teach workshop at the Humbolt Institute. One sat down and gave me impromptu lichen lesson about the zonation of lichen on the rocky outcropping in the picture posted below. Learning to see lichen zonation will be helpful when I carve rocky habitat where pelagic birds nest.
I made a more helpful observation while sketching harlequin ducks feeding in the ocean off Rockport, Massachusetts on a sunny winter day. While a duck was actively feeding it held its tail up while floating on the ocean between dives, but when it had eaten its fill the bird relaxed its tail and head. That tidbit will be useful when I carve a harlequin duck.
On a summer afternoon I was watching common eiders at Liberty Point on Campobello Island in Canada when two men appeared with a park ranger. The men were lichen experts on their way to teach workshop at the Humbolt Institute. One sat down and gave me impromptu lichen lesson about the zonation of lichen on the rocky outcropping in the picture posted below. Learning to see lichen zonation will be helpful when I carve rocky habitat where pelagic birds nest.