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turboshep.bsky.social
Shep
@turboshep.bsky.social
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turboshep.bsky.social
Northern Red Cardinal. Cardinalis cardinalis. Quick post of this #watercolor #painting. Please enjoy! #birdart #art #birds #birdsky
watercolor painting of a red cardinal
June 26, 2025 at 3:22 PM
turboshep.bsky.social
quick post today for folks who like #birdart. a bluejay and two red headed woodpeckers

#birds #watercolor #art
three birds on a clothesline post with an abstract green background
June 20, 2025 at 12:00 AM
turboshep.bsky.social
inspiring hahaha
a malevolent psychic entity reading your phone over your shoulder and naming the fonts you are looking at. it wont shut up. it will tell you its opinions about serifs also.
June 10, 2025 at 4:02 AM
turboshep.bsky.social
here are some shots of the work in progress
May 27, 2025 at 7:38 PM
turboshep.bsky.social
here is some #birdart for everyone. a great blue heron, Ardea herodias. i spent a lot of time on this one, as it is my first piece with a background. i learned a lot while doing it. and i was captivated by the reference photo. alt text for more context.

#watercolor #birds #art #greatblueheron
a photograph of a watercolor painting on a wood table. the painting is on a 6x8 sheet of cold press finish watercolor paper. the bird subject in the painting is outlined with a black felt tipped pen. the bird and background are watercolor. the painting depicts a great blue heron standing on a rock in a stream by a streambank. there is a vague wooded slope in the background, and shapes of trees or shaded plants or roots leading to the water edge. the bird's head is turned to the left, the bird looks like a fish just stole its wallet. i have only been drawing these birds for a couple months now - though ive never done art as a hobby this consistently. and here i am feeling my perfectionism start to wax. i painted the heron first, and i was worried that an attempt at painting the background would ruin the work. i hesitated for a day before doing it. i think it turned out well and i have honestly been excited to show it here. about the result: first off the bird looks angry haha. i feel i did capture the expression in the original subject but i made the eye so large it looks like a cartoon villain. the background is sorta formless and i decided to keep it out of focus, in a way. overall i wish i had made the background darker, like the photo, but those dark pigments still intimidate me. my anxiety about ruining a painting runs deep! still i kept this one afloat til the end and i am glad i took a chance on the background. i learned some lessons and it'll make my next one better. i almost didn't outline this bird but I'm glad i did. i posted the progress pics in a comment if you want to see the process. i think the readability improved a hundredfold once i applied the outline. now that I've posted this, i have no other painted birds so putting this out into the world means i have to get the paints back out and create something else for y'all. cheers and thanks for visiting my page, i appreciate every like and follow. some really great artists are among you all.
May 27, 2025 at 7:32 PM
turboshep.bsky.social
yall like the wide crop of this 6*9 drawing? what we've got here is a #goldfinch american style, Spinus tristis. i talk more about the artwork in the alt text which I'm doing as an art journal for posterity.

#birds #drawing #birdart #art #Americangoldfinch #pendrawing
black and white pen drawing of an american goldfinch perched in a dynamic pose facing right. the bird is perched on a vertical plant stem with several seedheads. the drawing is photographed on a wooden table and this is where i do all my drawing and painting. i think this is one of my best drawings so far, mostly because of the seedheads. i hadnt yet drawn any birds that were partially obscured and i think it makes for a really interesting composition, and i have to hand it to the photographer who took the reference photograph. lacking in this image is any shading, it's more of a form study. and while I'm not sure it's completely recognizable as a goldfinch without the bright lemon yellow plumage, the black markings do help describe the male of the species and i think it is vaguely identifiable to those who are familiar with this bird. I'm trying not to criticize myself too much but i need to point out how the upper leg is positioned poorly and he looks a little wonky for that reason... hehe. okay that's all I'll criticize. i think i got the body/head proportions very close to accurate on this drawing, which has been one of my primary struggles. it is rewarding to notice the progress I've made on that aspect of bird anatomy despite the leg issue (oops i mentioned it again). i think the composition is really the best part about this and i am glad to have captured so much of what was great about the original photograph. the plant "faces" left while the bird faces right and the two form a nice directional contrast with one another. really pleased with this overall. and i look forward to improving more and coming back to this entry to see how pleased i was with this. its nice to recognize my improvement and my potential to improve further. if you are reading these journal entries i really appreciate your curiosity into my inner world surrounding this artwork. it means a lot that you would take the time to do so. thank you!!
May 23, 2025 at 6:23 PM
turboshep.bsky.social
this eastern bluebird, Sialia sialis, was actually my first watercolor attempt maybe ever. art journal post in the alt text

#watercolor #birdart #birds #art #bluebird
a photo of a watercolor drawing of an eastern bluebird on white paper on a table. the paper looks slightly textured, and is so due to it being special watercolor paper. the bird is depicted facing right, wings folded, and perched at rest on a grey object (actually a wood fencepost in the reference photo). the bird has a bold outline because this is how i do an illustrative style: by making the color, pattern, and shapes as recognizable as possible. outlining with a chisel tip marker is still proving difficult and i made some mistakes with the feet but i like how the profile turned out. my big challenge with this one was the orange bordering the blue. watercolor mixes beautifully but i miss having the stark contrast between two opaque strokes i can get with acrylic paint. a friend suggested gauche as a compromise between the two but I've never heard of that medium. i think the penstrokes dillineating the cream/orange sections of the breast undermine the effect of the color transition. when using actual colors, defining these boundaries with pen seems less necessary or effective. nor have i experimented with using marker brushes to shade ahead of adding color. i am finding that, while practicing with paint, less is more with my penwork. i seem to have learned that lesson with the wing, where the Black and Blue seem to blur and make the work a bit more abstract. i think it works with the bluebird because its such a "soft" bird. i wonder if this one would look better with a background. there's something to be said for leaving it as is but i think a blurry green could look sharp. i think it's a skill i should nevertheless practice. okay, working on my next painting and watching 1994 animated spider-man. cheers, thank you for reading.
May 22, 2025 at 10:47 PM
turboshep.bsky.social
oh snap folks ya boy got some #watercolor paints so i gotta share this #bird #painting with you all. I'm writing #art journal entries in the alt text these days so please ignore or enjoy at your option.

today's subject is a ruby throated #hummingbird. used a set of cotman watercolors. thank you! ♥️
this is a watercolor painting of a ruby throated hummingbird in flight. it's drawn on a 6x9 watercolor double-glued paper pad which i didn't even know existed but it's way more absorbent than my typical marker paper, and thicker. as usual i am using pigma markers for the outline which are impervious to the water of the paint. i don't have much to say about the painting process. it was easier than i thought to get a final product that looked good to me. i did a bit of blending on a palette, and it was the first time I've ever blended watercolors. I used the same concepts ive used for acrylics but overall i find watercolors more forgiving. indeed the style permits or almost endorses the sort of soft color transitions that come from the bird in real life. it makes me want to paint other colorful, iridescent birds like this. or flowers or landscapes. i am still nervous about coloring the background. i feel that as soon as i start attempting to wash the backdrop, my brush strokes will be too obvious or I'll cross the bird's outline. so, I've stuck to coloring the bird itself and leaving the background blank. still, i think it makes for a striking composition all the same, isolating the bird in flight so this interesting sillhouette (sp?) can take center stage. i have been struggling with proportions but i think i did a good job here. the head isn't too large, maybe a bit, not too badly though. at least it isn't taking away from the picture. the greens in the body don't exactly match the greens in the head, but i think most viewers will attribute that to the lighting. all in all I'm very very pleased with the final product and can't wait to gift it. point in case, I've been texting this sucker to basically everyone i know. i hope you all enjoy it too! thank you for visiting my page and possibly for reading this blurb about the work itself. cheers
May 21, 2025 at 3:45 PM
turboshep.bsky.social
here's another #bird #drawing for y'all. this time an American #Robin. i use pigma micron and brush pens (markers?) and have been using strathmore marker paper for these, upon recommendation from a great employee at Plaza Art which i believe is a local #art supply chain. alt text for journal entry
this is a drawing i did of an American Robin in grayscale. like many of my other recent drawings, the bird is perched on a branch that gives the piece some geometric structure. the most difficult part of this drawing was the breast. American Robins have a nice orange upper breast and white belly, and i think the contrast of orange, dark grey, and white make this bird recognizable in person (and the fact that i most often see them at landscape jobs when ive just turned over a bunch of soil, as they feast on the bugs). without the benefit of color, i focused on the breast plumage most of all. this and the dark beak tip i hope will make the bird recognizable, but maybe itll take an experienced birder to identify it. that's okay, i learned some and I'm happy with the branch it is perching on. i really think my botany is coming in handy, I'm proud of the botanical accuracy on this woody twig; even if it's a bit stylized i think it rings organic. a dear friend told me she also likes Pigma pens because they use archival ink and thus you can paint with watercolors on top of it. i have been vaguely imagining what these drawings might look like with some watercolor applied to the background, in lieu of any detailed background, and leaving the foreground in grayscale. i might keep doing drawings and set aside some of the weaker ones to experiment with. when i do a very strong b&w drawing, i dont want to risk it! i sometimes include the reference photo when i do these drawings, like when I've asked permission here on bluesky, but sometimes i don't ask permission and that feels a little dishonest. surely i could not have done this piece without the excellent composition created by the original photographer so i will try to give credit whenever i can. asking permission is probably the best practice, but i don't rightly know how photographers feel about this, generally. in any case, it is a way to work on my social anxiety to connect with folks and reach out to others. TY!
May 19, 2025 at 12:13 AM
turboshep.bsky.social
did a #bird #drawing and i want to do something a bit more with this account so I'm gonna write up to the character limit as a sort of #art #journal when i post these
if you are reading this, thank you for checking out my post. I'm drawing these local birds to send to some of my loved ones.
alt text
pen drawing of a blue jay. these local birds are fun to draw. i wanted them to be recognizable because theyre for a gift. and i dont plan to color them in, so the blue jay had to read without involving any blue. instead i had to focus on the wing patterning and head markings. after doing this one i realized that the Mohawk 'up' look is more iconic for these jays so i have to trust to my line work that this will be legible. the bird is perched on a sort of dried stem that is bent at the top. i like these simple perches because its mostly geometric and gives me a chance to do some botanical drawing also. okay thats all i will write about this one because 2000 characters is a bit much but i will work up to that
May 18, 2025 at 9:54 AM
turboshep.bsky.social
did a #bird #drawing - a reed bunting. thanks, John, for sharing the great photograph. i love how the reed divides the composition, angular perches are fun to draw and the pose has a lot of suppressed energy.

#sketch #birdart #birds
black and white drawing of a reed bunting perched on a reed
May 10, 2025 at 2:44 AM
turboshep.bsky.social
drew another #bird #sketch #drawing

this is a northern flicker

original photo by @kenschwartz2.bsky.social

#birds #birdart
Northern flicker perched on vertical log. black and white pen drawing
May 8, 2025 at 2:23 AM
turboshep.bsky.social
drew this red-winged black bird, referenced a really great photo by @jocelynanderson.bsky.social whose #bird photography is exquisite.

this drawing was fun to make. i use a chisel tip #marker for the outline, and im improving with it. ultimately i am satisfied with the proportions
black and white pen drawing of a red winged black bird perched on a cattail
May 7, 2025 at 10:32 PM
turboshep.bsky.social
another #bird #drawing and one was inspired by a recent photo by @aintright.bsky.social

the proportions are exaggerated but i really love the shading on this one. the branches in the original photograph frame this #bullfinch really well. Bertie is handsome bird! thank you for sharing the photo!
ink drawing of a bull finch perched on a branch
April 27, 2025 at 9:31 PM
turboshep.bsky.social
made this #bird #drawing from a photo reference but i lost track of the reference photo, so i cant do a side by side! @aintright.bsky.social do you recognize this as one of your shots? i could be mistaken!

#pendrawing #birdart #mysterybird
pen drawing of a bird
April 27, 2025 at 8:29 PM
turboshep.bsky.social
lady witchdoctor summoning a ghost?
April 21, 2025 at 3:34 PM
turboshep.bsky.social
thank you @aintright.bsky.social

had to begin with this coal tit, Colin. his pose was very dynamic, great staging. the line work was fun, as it was a challenge to evoke those neatly stacked primary feathers.
pen drawing of a coal tit bird. it is perched on a mossy branch facing down-right.
April 19, 2025 at 6:10 PM
turboshep.bsky.social
thanks @alan678.bsky.social for the blessing on this #bird #drawing. great photo. the subject is a willow warbler.
pen drawing of a willow warbler bird perched on a budding willow branch. the bird faces left and the willow boughs form an X in the composition
April 8, 2025 at 6:14 PM
turboshep.bsky.social
for those of you in total suspense
April 3, 2025 at 2:20 AM
turboshep.bsky.social
i made another #drawing of a #bird for all the lovers of #birdart out there. i used a stock image reference of a #bluebird and using some new felt pens
black and white pen drawing of a blue bird in flight
April 2, 2025 at 3:55 PM
turboshep.bsky.social
thanks for letting me sketch your wonderful photo
black and white pen drawing of a female northern cardinal perched on a twig with no visible background and looking over its shoulder
April 1, 2025 at 8:09 PM
turboshep.bsky.social
I really liked the framing of the photo and the subject, so I've done a sketch of this photo. Thanks for sharing your work
March 29, 2025 at 1:32 AM
turboshep.bsky.social
New bird picture. How do hash tags work? Anyone wanna see my #bird #drawing ? It's a #quail
March 28, 2025 at 9:51 PM
turboshep.bsky.social
Throwback snowback to four specific sheep in front of a specific barn on a snowy day.
Four sheep standing in a snow field with a barn behind them
March 28, 2025 at 6:56 PM
turboshep.bsky.social
@birdwhisperers.bsky.social

Glad to stumble across this when looking to do a bird sketch

#BirdWhisperer #art #birds
Pen sketch of a cowbird
March 26, 2025 at 5:00 PM