ravens over Partrishow

ravens over Partrishow, originally uploaded by Dru Marland.

When we went to Partrishow in January, it was a beautifully still day, and a pair of ravens made use of as much sky as they could, which was quite a lot. Deborah's written a poem about them, and I thought it would make a good picture.

I used olive green for the fields, as they have that just-before-spring colour to them.

And burnt sienna for the bracken slopes in the half-distance.

And I drew branches in white wax crayon before putting down a sepia wash for the trees, which worked quite well; not done that before.

Had a major goof on the sky; I was putting down masking fluid, then realised I was masking the sky and not the ravens; and while I was removing the mask before putting it where it should be (on the ravens!), it ripped the surface of the paper. And there was a horrid dark patch on the the sky (cerulean blue). So I put a band of cloud across behind the raven (dampening the area, then lifting off the blue by dabbing with a sponge).