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| The Dodo at the Natural History Museum pen and sepia ink in Moleskine Sketchbook, 8" x 10" all images copyright Katherine Tyrrell |
On Friday, the Drawing London Group which I belong to visited the Natural History Museum for our monthly outing.
I was on a mission to produce a sketch for one of the Sketchercise members participating in "A Postcard from my Walk".
Like I said in my last post, museums and art galleries provide lots of opportunities for walking out of the nasty winter weather . They are particularly valuable for me with my dodgy feet which don't like the cold, wet or icy underfoot! So I figured the outing would give me lots of opportunities to find a subject for my postcard.
I was rather worried as I was going to be sketching at a completely new size for me 7" x 5" (having abandoned the idea of even trying 6" x 4". The problem is I'm used to sketching big and this new size proved to be a bit of a problem.
I decided to have a go at sketching the Dodo. I reckoned that had to be a bit unique as subject matter goes! There are several types of images in the Natural History Museum (of which more in another post on Making A Mark). I started by trying to sketch the engavings and paintings of a dodo in the Images Gallery.
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| Engravings of the Dodo - Thomas Herbert |
Well - I don't whether it's because it's a very odd looking bird or I just don't like sketching small but the first sketches came out looking rather odd.
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| Tiny Dodo sketch #1 - during which I learned they should not have a bulbous crop |
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| Dodo #2 7" x 5" pen and sepia ink in Moleskine sketchbook |
Also what I really didn't like either of the sketches as the dodo in both looked.....stuffed - if not wooden!
I finally came across "the real stuffed dodo" in the birds gallery and was able to produce the sketch at the top after I abandoned the constraint of the 7" x 5" format and went back to 8" x 10" which is the format I've used for a long while. I'm much happier with that one!
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| The Cocoon at the Natural History Museum - floor to ceiling Those tiny marks at the bottom are people walking up stairs! |
It's ages since I've felt myself impelled to fall off a vertical drop! Thank goodness there was a window inbetween!
ooh I don't like that drop. I do like your Dodo sketches though.
ReplyDeleteI really like your dodos, especially the top one! Am I right in remembering that that particular stuffed specimen is covered in swan feathers...?!
ReplyDeleteI looked at them and couldn't remember what they reminded me of - but yes I think you're right. They are most probably swan feathers.
ReplyDeleteGreat sketches of the Dodo...funny how he didn't want to fit on your smaller paper. lol The museum is a great place to do a postcard for the sketchercise project.
ReplyDeleteWent to the Picasso exhibit. Really wish I could have sat with my sketch book. There were so many people it was impossible. Love sketching at places like this.
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