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LyrebirdJacki — The Exterminators
Published: 2011-06-27 11:22:08 +0000 UTC; Views: 1510; Favourites: 55; Downloads: 18
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Description
Brown Goshawks done in A3 Arches Watercolour Cold Press, gouache with polychromosThe colours are much nicer and rich, except for the beaks, they arent as bright as they are here. An entry for this year's Darwin Show, im entering 5 this year and have one more to work on, thinking of doing an inflight painting or something from Tasmania (a snow picture perhaps?).
A new style im trying, it was going to be a plain brown blurred background but then i decided to go for a landscape, to put some photos ive got stored away to use. The birds are mostly in pencils with the breast, parts of the eye and beak in gouache, the background is completely gouache.
Drawn from my own references
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Comments: 61
Thank you for the kind words my friend, it means alot coming from a fellow bird artist of such skill yourself. I quite enjoyed looking at your works too.
I might be getting them done as prints at the gallery i am in so that would mean a better photo would be nessicary im sure
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Thanks for your words, too!
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beautiful soft feathers and a nice shine on them.
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Absolutely beautiful~ The detail in the feathers are just... HOW?! @___@ I bet this took many hours! :0
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Thanks, they always take many hours
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Lovely 
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It looks amazing!! lovely colbaration of the pencil and gouache
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thanks mate, i love gouache so far! it just has this vibrancy that pencils cant get very easily, and its better for doing grass hands down, i dont even attempt to draw grass anymore in pencil. Plus it fits in with pencils so well unlike acrylics.
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Oh thats great, yeah your work with the gouache is amazing.
I think your grass looks really good, it'd be quicker with gouache wouldn't it?
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yup its heaps quicker alright, dont have to layer and layer it like with pencils and if you make a mistake you can just blend it all together and go over the top
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Hehehe... I knew you wouldn't be able to help yourself XD. Looks beautiful Jacki!! I'm glad you decided to go with a landscape background instead of a blurred brown.... it looks so much nicer! I love the beaks and eyes the most.
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of course i couldnt help myself, i sort of like to put them up here straight away so i get the date written down somewhere of when i did it (DA has the uploading date while i dont write them down). Thanks, it wasnt as hard as i thought it would be doing a landscape, im currently doing another one similar but with some ducks flying, only done the sketch tho...
beaks and eyes always come out the best, i spend so long on making them come out magnifico. If the eyes and beak (or in other pictures, the nose) arnt good, the picture just isnt right
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lol.... Makes sense though! At least you will know when you finish a piece so on.
No, not at all. Like all things, all you need to do is practice and try it out. You did
a good job 
You can tell you spend time on the eyes and nose/ beak. I totally agree with you on that. If the
eyes or nose/beak don't look right, the whole piece looks like crap!
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Well having the date can help with when people ask me (at galleries they always seem to ask the date, and at the show i have the date they were done on written on the back). Also helped when i got some older pieces framed, i didnt even know what year they were done in! (i only put the year they were done in on the painting)
The next one is nearly done! i tried yet another technique with a scourer (what you wash the dirty dishes with), its looking good but i think the colours are looking a little harsh, might have to go over it to make it better on the eyes...
ive seen some gorgeous animal artworks which you can tell has some skill in it, but the eyes or nose looks a little wonkey which totally ruins it. If only they fixed it....
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True, true!
Oh, you doing another piece? Not the duck one but another?...
Same... Beautiful but they eyes have not been focused on as much as the body... shame!
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nope, just the ducks
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EPIC!!!!!! SO COOL... god jacki I envy you so much <3 <3
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Haha thanks but with practise you'll improve so much, if you look at my drawings from the first one you will see a BIG difference in improvement, and it didnt get like that from nothing. Hey you entering the show this year? You can see it there this year in the adults section.
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True...yeah, hopefully I'll win again... AWESOME!!! can't wait to see it
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oooh what are you entering? Im guessing the manga again?
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bingo!!! we have a winner
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only 5 this year 
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that is the same amount as me..
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i reckon us artists need some super hot topless firemen to burst into our art space and scream out "We'll help you guys out with motivation! WE'LL DO ANYTHING TO HELP!"....but i think im dreaming now.
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Oh how I wish... I totally agree with you even if it were a dream...
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Oh, and what kind of paper do you use? 
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Arches watercolour smooth: [link] it should look like this. there is the same kind which if you go to an art store, that has a purple front cover, dont get that stuff if you want to try glazing, its very thin and doesnt take as much pressure. its a bit pricey but probably more so where i live because i only have one source, you might get it alot cheaper.
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Thank you! Bookmarked that link, I'll keep an eye out for that paper next time I go to an art store here.
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This is awesome
When you use colored pencil do you color really lightly and just layer things so there's no white dots, or do you color harder? I've been trying to get into colored pencil but unless I color kind of hard, the pores of the paper never seem to fill in enough to leave me content v_v But it never seems to come out quite like your coloring or some others I've seen, so I'm just curious
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well i colour light for the first layer (sort of like blocking in with paint i spose) then go hard over the top in white, which fills in the pores. Then i go medium hard with the next colour which after the white it leaves it all smooth and just continue the process with white until it comes to a nice glossy look i like.
Alot of pressure can be used depending on the area i am working on but mostly is light, but a good thick gsm paper really helps, wouldnt be possible with normal catridge paper, would just tear after the first few layers.
I so need to get a video camera to do visual tutorials to show the difference on cartridge and cotton paper plus how to layer. Btw what kind of pencils are you using? the pencil brand can have a big impact on the glazing too
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Thank you SOOOO much for the info!
I use Prismacolor Colored Pencils. I have not used Arches Watercolor before for colored pencil, I will have to try it!
I know what cartridge paper is but what do you mean by gsm paper? Sorry I just haven't heard the term before
I will try to use your advice and see if my next colored pencil piece can turn out well. I just absolutely ADORE your art/style, and while I certainly don't intend to copy it, I'd love to be able to color as nicely as you do
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Ive never tried prismacolour, they dont sell more than a pack of 12 here and not singular ones like i do for my polychromos (maybe they arnt popular enough where i live? i know alot of people use them on DA though). Ive heard prisma are very soft? But the colours seem to look bright.
Gsm is the thickness (in otherwords it means it can take more pressure), if you look at the front covers of paper drawing pads or sometimes the art shop will have labels where loose paper is stacked, it should say GSM with a number after it. 300 is the thickest as far as i know which is what i prefer. But you can get paper with 200-180 which is a bit thinner and cheaper. 200 is still a good thickness.
Dont worry, Gsm shouldnt really matter with experimentation artworks, i started with the thick exspencive stuff and must have around 10 pages of it half used in other words wasted, if i started with the thinner stuff i wouldnt have wasted so much...
That sounds good, its wonderful to hear people wanting to learn about my drawing style/habit and trying it out themselves. i look forward to seeing more of your work in pencils
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Oh, ok. Yes, Prismacolors are very soft, it can be quite annoying at times because they're so soft the tips can break easily if you aren't careful with them. I like them though, and they seem to be easier to come across here than other brands.
Ok, I will keep Gsm in my memory so I can know that in the future, thank you
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Argh i hate that when the tips break, i get that even with polychromos (which are firm) when i do fine work like around the eyes or fur. ill have to try them some day, maybe order some from an artstore that sells them individually insted of in packs.
i used to not know the quality difference between computer printer paper and cartridge and even recycled paper when i was younger. As long as it was paper and i could draw on it i didnt care
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Yes, it's so annoying! The prismacolors I bought are actually in a set of I believe 130 pencils, but I need to look into whether or not they sell them individually, because I tend to use up my blacks and browns faster than others.
Hehe, I was the same
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argh i hate that too, i use up the white the most, then the greys and browns. Funny enough i dont use black much anymore, used to be a fight to find black pencils but i find just using really dark greys and indigos get pretty close to black and only using black for making something stand out or the thin black lines around the eyes (a good example is this picture actually).
you could probably suggest an art store to sell individual pencils of a particular brand (if they already havent got them), the art store where i am have brought in art materials because i complained about them not having certain stuff in stock.
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I use more dark greys than pure black as well, but I was referring to all the "blacks" as in dark greys and such -wasn't clear-.
I may do that. I don't actually go to art stores often because they're always out of the way/inconvenient or way too pricey. The one I relied upon in my old town shut down about two years ago, and the one in my area here is a pricey chain store that's about 20 minutes away and I can't drive yet.
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aaaahhh ok whoops
oh that sucks, you could maybe order online if your mum or dad will do it for you, i did that for a few things, its always cheaper online too and you are more likely to find stuff there the local shops dont.
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It's ok my fault lol
Yea, I think I may resort to that until I can find a cheaper/steadier/closer supplier
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