Detlef Jumpertz

Medium: Colour Pencil/Graphite
Size: 360 mm x 530 mm

It was a poor day weather wise, and my big plans for a long bike ride were thwarted. So I decided to attack this drawing again despite the sub-optimal light for drawing. Following a couple of cups of coffee I felt I was in the right frame of mind. Firstly, I started on the beak and tried to get some form around that by slowly building up the layers of colour. I had a look and thought holy shit Batman that looks like crapola - the wrong mix of colour, especially in the darker and shadowed areas and lack of curvature on the beak was the result. Back to the drawing board! I eventually got to a stage where I was happy with the beak and the worked on the head with the eyebrow blaze and eye, followed by the shadow tints on the white plumage.

The next step was to begin layering different shades of yellow and throw in brown and orange to start building up a golden hue down the bird's back and across the wings. The more I layered the more I contemplated what a striking bird the golden bosun bird is, the gold stretching right down the back, and quite distinctive black splotches (not yet drawn) across the wings and the wings tips. Those black splotches will break down the rich gold colour and bring some more balance. I reckon this is coming along OK, I'm certainly and, at last, convinced that colour scheme works.

I just hope that the finished product ends up being special...it needs to be.