The Noble Magpie

COLOUR PENCIL

Ref: with kind permission Russ Bridges
Surface: Pastelmat, 24x30cm, white
Colour Pencils: Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer, Faber-Castell Polychromos and Caran d'Ache Luminance
Confectionery: Toblerone

As many of you will know, this is an example of a Eurasian or Common Magpie, latin name Pica Pica.

I always feel a species may take umbrage at being called Common by humans. Perhaps there is a Supreme Blue Blood Magpie out there, with a latin name like Pikachu, that makes the poor old Common one seem plain by comparison

According to Wikipedia, this member of the Corvid family is one of the few non mammals that can recognise itself in a mirror. I see this as no mean feat, as I myself have repeatedly failed that intelligence test over the years.

So, on to the drawing. I wanted something that I could do pretty quickly and have a play with, as I wanted to reacquaint myself with the nefarious properties of Pastelmat. This fabulous photo by Russ Bridges really popped out, showing the wonderful colours present in these beauties.

The wood was started first, using dry watercolour pencil and activating with Perrier, vintage unknown but it had a lovely bouquet. This worked very nicely and then I started with the dry pencil on top. I managed to concentrate on following the reference photo key wood features for about 6.93 seconds before deciding to go off piste with my own wood design, and I added a coffee bean in there as well when my attention wandered and my caffeine count hit rock bottom.

As I sat drawing, I was reminded that Pastelmat exerts a huge gravitational pull on fluff, from at least a 9 mile radius, so I had to scrub up and go for a forensically clean approach. Part of this process involved using a home made mahl stick, or more a bridge actually, with a piece of wood suspended atop a domino tin and recipe book. It worked well, my surface was kept clean, my sanity remained partially intact and no rude words were issued. Expect to see a bundle deal at all good art stores soon.

Once the wood was carved, I had some fun building up the Pica Pica, section by section and all dry, taking great delight at the extravagant number of colours I could build in to those blends. A few pencil swishes and a flap of the wings or two later, and this Noble Magpie was complete. I like to think that if ever the original subject sees it hanging in the Louvre, that he will indeed recognise himself and caw in self admiration

So there you have it, a first of the year for me and wishing you all a creative, happy and healthy year ahead.🖖