Harpy Eagle pencil drawing

Harpy Eagle (Harpia harpya).

Red-tailed Hawk

This is a pencil drawing of a Red-tailed Hawk taking on a rattlesnake; still in progress.

Painting in progress: Pale Male the Red-tailed Hawk

A scan from an HP scanner, so quite a bit grainy to my chagrin; Pale Male, the Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) of Central Park fame. Will work on it some more, thinking of keeping the background sedate and the tree mainly grey.

Kestrel drawing

Above is a Kestrel, Falco sparverius, work in progress, pencil on paper.  It is one of the works for the upcoming Eagles, Hawks and Falcons of the City of New York.

Philby's Partridge and Arabian Cobra

This is a Philby's Partridge (Alectoris philbyi) in a confrontation with an Arabian Cobra (Naja arabica). The bird is of a restricted range in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, and there is a need for conservation efforts. Rabbi Chaim Loike of the Orthodox Union in New York is working on preserving the species, for which he has found a Mesorah, that is, a written record of its kosher status. I will be working more on this species this year, and also on a type of kosher white Mallard which Rabbi Loike keeps in his aviary, along with the partridges. Earlier this year he held a paint-and-tell session at the Orthodox Union where I met his duck and he gave me some of her eggs, with which I will paint it in tempera grassa, that is, egg yolk and hemp oil. 

Pale Male drawing

 

A drawing of Pale Male for the upcoming book Eagles, Hawks & Falcons of the City of New York.

Bald Eagle drawing

Bald Eagle drawing for the upcoming book Eagles, Hawks & Falcons of the City of New York.

Hooded falcon sketch

This is a hooded falcon I am working on now for the upcoming Eagles, Hawks and Falcons of the City of New York.

Eagles, Hawks and falcons of the City of New York

Long time since I've blogged here, been busy, but am returning to the easle to work on more art. The Red-tailed painting has been worked on more, building drama with more black feathers from the doomed crow. This and other raptors here are found in New York, and the project at hand is a book dedicated to raptors of NYC. Pale Male is still in residence in Central Park, although a number of his mates and offspring have succumbed to rat poison and have met other fates; this year alone three hawks were found dead, believed to have met their fate through poison - as yet the culprit is still at large, and autopsy reports have been neglected despite the call for them by Lincolm Karim (click here to see his site). Another lost Buteo is Violet, who was banded improperly at New York University and developed an infection due to the band. In all there are over a dozen raptors, including eagles (only migratory), falcons, a harrier, a vulture, three accipiters, and two other species of Buteo. Presently there will be postings of developing art work on this project, and/or photographs. Stay tuned!

HERON HAWKING IN DAYS OF YORE
After posting my own developing sketch of heron hawking, I found an old lithograph of the same, so here are the twain, side by side.

HAWKING AT HERONS
This is my newest pencil sketch, in a yet slightly unfinished state, as more loose feathers are still being drawn. It is a sort of study for a Saker on a Houbara, so stay posted for developments.

HAWKING FOR HARES WITH KESTRELS?
This 19th century engraving by Fromentin seems to depict kestrels on hare or rabbit.
Not sure this is a very accurate concept, sometimes artists did not quite know the sport of falconry.

MONGOLIAN FALCONERS
This image appeared in the Illustrated London News on 18 May 1901, as part of an article about English falconer Gordon
Robinson. It appears in the de Chamerlet book Falconry and Art, in a black and white
version. I am not quite sure if the London News printed this in colour, so the provenance of this print is still undetermined.

A BIRD IN HAND
An old pencil drawing I did of Emma Ford with a Peregrine. She and her husband Steve run the British School of Falconry, which is now up in Scotland, after years of being in Stelling Minnis, Kent.

BEE-EATER BY KEULEMANS

This is one that is neither my work nor a falconry image. However,
it is a rare lithographic print by Keulemans. Dr. Richard Soffer saw it
at my house in and told me it was done ex-libris as a promotional offer to
patrons. I got a hold of them at Weldon & Wesley when they were moving a
few years ago. Little did I know then how rare they were. One site nicely
in my flat with a gold frame around it.

SITTING ON A FENCE

This is a drawing of a Harris' Hawk (Parabuteo unicinctus)I did in 1991. Working a lot this week in pencil, and I like to go back over the old work and revive my memory of certain techniques, so I pulled out a lot of items I had not seen for a while, including a number of sketches of the birds here in the Natural History Museum. They have a nice Harpy Eagle, and had, but took down, the Philippine (Monkey Eating) Eagle, so I am glad I sketched it when it was around. One Harpy Eagle is already up, it is the largest work I have at hand, about A1 size and in oil.

SANDGROUSE EVADE THEIR PREDATOR

Here is a simple painting I did some years ago and used to illustrate Sirdar Mohamed Osman's Musings of an Afghan Falconer. It is a Laggar Falcon hunting Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse. The falcon usually sneaks up on them at the wadi, when thousands congregate for a drink, and takes the weakest link.

WAITING ON A BRANCH

This accipiter is just killing time. A Goshawk at rest, but still alert, with its ruby red eye on the sky.

NORTH AMERICAN FALCONS

Above is a quick pencil sketch of the Merlin (Falco columbarius), the American Kestrel (F. sparveruis), and the Peregrine Falcon (F. peregrinus). All three are used in falconry there, where the Kestrel is a bit larger than its European cousin.

TAKING A SNAKE FROM THE GRASS

This bird, the Red-legged Seriema (Seriema cristata) has just bagged his lunch, a Smooth Machete Savane (Chironius scurrulus). The snake's genus is endemic to South America, as is the bird's; however, one might note some similarities to the Houbara (Chlamydotis undulata) and other bustards. That is because they are in fact in the same order, the Gruiformes, along with rails. Speaking of Houbara, I am working on a painting of one meeting a Saker, so there may be an opportunity to compare these two Gruiformes. The individual feather patterning and facial feathering are strikingly similar. Diet and other factors are also shared, so it may be said that the seriemas are a New World equivalent of the bustards.