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Sarosna85 — Time to fly
#autumn #fabercastell #fall #finland #joutsen #suomi #swan #watercolor #watercolorpencil #watercolour #royaltalens #hahnemuehle #finland100 #rembdrant
Published: 2017-10-08 07:26:07 +0000 UTC; Views: 656; Favourites: 77; Downloads: 0
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Description
This is my contest entry for watercolorists group's AquaChallenge: TRANSITIONS .The theme 'Transitions' immediately made me think about the swans that we see on the fields here every fall and spring. This year there were a lot of them. They rest for a couple of weeks on the fields and then they move on. It's a beautiful sight and marks the coming of winter. Whooper swan is also the national bird of Finland. We are celebrating the 100th year anniversary of our country this year so it seemed fitting.
I wanted to create a dusky, nostalgic atmosphere for this piece so I avoided using colors that are too saturated. I wanted to create a bit of story in this image so I made the swans look at the formation of birds flying away. The couple is ready to join the other migrating birds and one of the swans is already stretching it's wings.
Rembrandt watercolors
Faber Castell Albrecht Dürer watercolor pencils
Very little amount of pencil to outline the swans
Hahnemühle Anniversary watercolor paper
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Comments: 20
* ¡Fantástico trabajo! Lo hemos destacado dentro de la carpeta "Featured nº2 ó Destacados nº 2" en Special-Groups. (Es la carpeta donde se exhiben los mejores trabajos del grupo).
¡Por favor, queremos ver más trabajos tuyos en el grupo!
* Fantastic work! Featured in Special-Groups in folder Featured nº 2. (Best works of the group).
Please, We want to see more works in the group of you!
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A real pleasure dear friend!
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This is truly wonderful. It makes me think of the huge controversy over ANWR going on right now, and how it is so important to preserve the precious wildlands that these beautiful creatures depend on.
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Well, I wouldn't know about that since I'm not American but it's nice to know that my art sparked some thoughts 
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I love how this tells a story, immidiately when you look at it. The scenery looks also nice with natural colour choice, I can imagine that you could see such a landscape Suomessa? There'd be two things I could point out, but I don't know if you want to hear small critism?
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Thank you so much for all the comments and the watch as well
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Hello! Coming over from :devprojectcomment:!
First off, I love what you're depicting. I do pick up the story you're trying to tell even without your explanation in the description. The colors are very well done, especially the subtle shading on the swans. The sky as well; you absolutely nailed the soft blue and pink and the clouds are also excellent. I like how you used just a little bit of pencil to outline the swans, as I don't think the watercolors alone would provide a similarly clean outline.
I can't say I have a lot of suggestions for improvement, as it's a very good piece already. The only thing that comes to mind is the legs of the standing swan; the angle of its feet makes it seem like it's planted in the ground. That might just be a perspective factor though. edit: (I have been told to add more to my comment and so I shall.) The background is definitely really pretty, but there's not a whole lot going on. I think adding a few more birds around them or maybe even a lake or wherever the swans live would be a nice touch. Also the bird flying overhead are larger than one would expect to see from the ground.
That's about it! Nicely done!
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Thank you so much for the constructive feedback
I actually didn't really know how to draw the legs the way they would've looked right so I just stuck them in the field I also draw kind of small so sometimes it's very tricky to draw some details like that. I definitely need to improve on that.
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Oh wow this is beautiful! Such soft colours and gorgeous blending, exceptional work!
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I'm here live from club project comment and here is my diagnostic.
Now I've never been too big a fan of watercolours, but what you've got here is a pretty cool picture.(And I'm not just saying that because I love nature illustration). You've nailed the anatomy on the swans. The wings look superb accuracy wise and believe me, drawing feathers is no cake walk. So you should be proud. The perspectives for the background elements are also a major selling point. The placement of the woods, flying V and mountains do a terrific job at establishing atmosphere and depth. I wish I could say the same about the foreground elements. I'm sorry, but the two swans just look too small to leave any significant impact. Perhaps if you drew them twice as big, lower their position on the canvas and painted some more darks on their backside it would make this painting much more interesting.
Overall, 7.5/10
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Thank you so much for your constructive comment! I've been so focused on improving my backgrounds that I never even thought about the swans themselves. I have a habit of drawing very small so when I have to figure out a composition like this I tend to fill it with a lot of empty space. That's definitely something I need to improve on but I always thought I'd just add a bunch of stuff in the BG instead of drawing the characters bigger Now that you mentioned it, I actually feel a bit silly.
Thank you again for the really helpful pointers
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This is so beautiful! I love watercolor pieces
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