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This weekend I participated in an art workshop in England, via ZOOM. "Virtual Owls" was hosted by Art Safari, the group of artists with whom I first picked up a paintbrush two years ago.
Our instructor was British artist Alice Angus, known for her quick and lively plein-air (outdoor) sketches. Her work expresses the movement of wildlife, something that I've struggled to do.
This workshop was about sketching owls - including from "live-cam" video feeds - rather than creating detailed paintings, and I learned even more than I expected to.
We began the first day by studying owl anatomy, creating pencil sketches of the skeletons and skulls of these magnificent raptors.
That gave our small group a solid foundation for understanding how owls move, the true length of the legs which are so often hidden by masses of feathers, and much more.
From that we progressed to pencil or charcoal sketches of owls, adding colour only at the end of that first session.
Day Two of the workshop began with an exploration of mark-making, finding different ways to rapidly create an impression of feathers or movement.
By the time that we progressed to sketching owls from "live-cam" video images, I had a better grasp of how owls move - whether flying or roosting - which was very helpful.
This two-day workshop led to what I view as a real improvement in my owl sketches, so I'm looking forward to getting out and sketching some owls en plein-air... once our Montréal weather warms up a bit.
In the meantime, I'm sharing my favourite sketch from this weekend's workshop; a sleepy owl who seemed to be winking at us from the live video-feed.