Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Early morning ibis


Early morning ibis, originally uploaded by Elizabeth Smith.

Early Morning Ibis

The other morning we saw a flock of ibis on our neighbor’s roof and in the nearby cabbage palm. I was able to get a photo as they flew off, and then later painted the image in watercolor on the back of an old Tyvek® envelope. I remember them as smoky gray silhouettes against a silvery-rosy-blue sky.

My bird book tells me that the brown and white birds I see are juveniles. I sketched a group of adult ibis a while back, and now I wonder if they are part of the same group. I think ibises are beautifully graceful both on land and in the sky, but their take-offs seem a bit gangly. I like this about them, too.

You can click on the image above to see it larger on my Flickr photostream.

3 comments:

  1. So artistic and beautifully designed. Brovo. I remember your PowerPoint slide on how to do this. I must revisit this again soon. I went back to the other links here to see other posts. Just lovely. Judy

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  2. ...so beautiful and unique. I would never have thought of painting on a Tyvek envelop. It has the feel of batik. (I found you through Krista's site. Glad I did!)

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  3. Thank you Judy and Kelly! I appreciate your thoughts. The Tyvek reminds me of batik, too. I love the way the fibers show up through the paint. Krista's new site is great...I need to update my blog list soon.

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