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The Young Blackbird

Richard Bell’s Wild West Yorkshire nature diary Monday, 28th July 2008

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AN APPLE A DAY would be a good way to learn the basics of representing form. I drew this in B pencil (a fairly soft grade) and added watercolour. I had positioned it so that the evening light coming in through the northwest-facing front window cast a soft shadow with reflected light on the darker side of the apple. In turn light has been reflected from the apple into the shadow.

This reflected light is tinged with the green of the apple.

Bad news, I’m afraid: the young blackbird that ate our ripe blueberries yesterday was huddled on the patio this morning. It was bright-eyed with no sign of a broken wing or leg but it was evidently very ill and died after an hour or so.