Peregrine Falcon

I know that I have been so slow in up dating my blog. It is not that easy to do it constantly. But here are some sketches from June.



A female peregrine falcon brooding her chick.





And this is the chick when it got bigger!
After the Seabird Drawing Course I was so inspired that I went to sketch the pergrine falcon chick with a set of water colour! I must keep doing this.



The mother brought a rock pigeon to the chick. The chick ate and ate and ate and it flew away somewhere. It could already fly very well. After a few minutes, the mother came back with another prey but the chick wasn't on the cliff. So she had to go and find her with the prey!



The mother peregrine.

Birds in scenery

I've always wanted to draw birds in scenery rather than a detailed portrait of them. Maybe because I am more interested in nature as a whole and the interaction between species and the habitat. St. Abbs head is certainly a place to make such large scale paintings. And I just love the place so much!



Guillemots（ウミガラス）
When the sun shines on the rocks, the lichens gleam in yellow and orange and the sea turns to be in beautiful blue green. It is beautiful but it only happens for a moment when the sun is out.



Guillemots were all trying to sit on the tiny rock sticking out above the surface of the sea. The ones swimming tried to climb on and pushed those standing on the rock and the ones standing pecked them back into the sea.



This year, we were lucky enough to be able to go on to the Fidra, an island also in the Firth of Forth and owned by RSPB. I learned that Robert Louis Stevenson spent many childhood holidays on this island. It is said that he got inspiration for the Treasure Island here!



And Fidra has some breeding puffins!

Trying new things

The Seabird Drawing Course gave us motivation and inspiration and opportunity to try something new. Even tutors seem to be taking it as a chance to do something new. We were all influenced by other artists! It is so lovely to work with other people.



I played around a little bit with colour paper. Crayon on some scrap paper that my friend left behind.





Painted on the coloured paper, which I made by rolling out the leftover ink.



水彩で描いた後に、鉛筆の線をのせてみたもの。



Kittiwakes at Dunbar. They are nesting at the Dunbar Castle, the remnant of the one of the biggest castles in Scotland. Now it is a very popular apartment for kittiwakes. It was so hot that day and the kittiwakes were opening their beak, sticking their beautiful orange tongue!

Bass Rock Gannet

I joined the Seabird Drawing Course again! It was as amazing as last time, or even more! I had been looking forward to it since it finished last year.


When I arrived at the campsite, I already found a familiar face, Greg Pool, one of the tutors and I was welcomed by all the other campers. I can not explain how happy I was when I entered the hotel and saw some familiar faces from a year ago! It was incredible to feel at home at this amazing place with all the amazingly talented people.



From the very first day, we went on to the Bass Rock, where it snows in summer. The millions of gannets were there calling, fighting, sleeping and preening to each others as they were last year. But because of the late spring, we didn't see any chicks. Parents were still incubating their egg.



ジョン・バズビー氏をはじめ有名なワイルドライフ・アーティストをチューターとして迎えて行われる、海鳥を描く一週間のコースに今年もまた参加してきた。このコースの目玉は何といっても、シロカツオドリの島、バス・ロックに上陸して一日絵が描けることだ。この島は実は私有地で研究目的などでないかぎり、基本的には一般の人は立ち入れないらしい！　



I love going back to the same place and doing the same thing. Because I know what to expect and have some more knowledge about it, I start to see things that I miss at first. Since I read part of Bryan Nelson's The Atlantic Gannet to write my picture book idea, Snow in Summer, I was thinking of their habitat and motions with meanings rather than just a beautiful, incredible scene or postures to draw.




"When you draw gannets there, you have to think about the energy of Bass Rock itself. Gannets are merely tiny things flying about on its surface," Mr. Busby was saying. To feel the energy and try to include it in the works, you have to be out there in the field. And maybe that is why sketches from life are often stronger than those works made in the studio.



The second day on the Bass, it got windier and windier. Gannets were flying and enjoying the wind. But because the normal boat couldn't come close to the Bass Rock, we had to be rescued by a rib. And since even the rib couldn't stop by the rock, we had to jump on to the rib one by one when it came closer. But it is this wind that allows gannets to nest on this island.

pencil drawings

Drawing the same species again and again, I started to understand its shape better and became able to draw it with a single or at least with a few lines. During this trip I realised how important it is to stick on to the same subject, theme, material until I feel confident about it. You have to be a bit crazy to be a really good artist, it seems!



Fulmar（フルマカモメ）



Guillemots（ウミガラス）
長いこと観察していると時々抱いている卵が見えることがある。個体によって卵の色は異なり、空色だったり、白くて茶色い斑点があったり。崖の上で隣の個体とくっつくようにして抱卵しているため、卵の色や模様を変えることで、隣近所の卵と混同せずに自分の卵を認識できるようにしていると言われている。



Puffin（ニシツノメドリ）



Gannet（シロカツオドリ）


Wheatear（ハシグロヒタキ）

June 2013

After many many months and years later when I think back June 2013, I will always remember it with seabirds in Scotland, gannets, puffins, guillemots, razorbills, shags, kittiwakes and fulmars. The whole months seemed to have passed while I was watching and drawing them.



Puffin （ニシツノメドリ）



もう一度、フォース湾に浮かぶメイ島に行くという夢が叶ってしまった。今年は天候不順で春の到来が2週間近く遅れたことと、餌不足でニシツノメドリ、ミツユビカモメ、ヨーロッパヒメウをはじめとする海鳥の繁殖進度もだいぶ遅いようだ。2年前、同じ時期に来たときは、ニシツノメドリがイカナゴを口いっぱいにくわえ、巣穴を忙しく出入りしていたのだが、今年はまだ抱卵中のようだった。





Arctic Tern（キョクアジサシ）



Common Guillemots（ウミガラス）



Gannet（シロカツオドリ）



Eider Duck（ホンケワタガモ）

Sketches from Norfolk

Avocet with chicks（ソリハシセイタカシギ）
I was so happy to see the Avocet chicks because it was such a perfect timing. That day, I visited Robert Gillmor, an amazing linocut artist. When I think of his works I always have the image of the Avecet with its chicks. He was having the open studio at his house in Cley.



Whitethroat（ノドジロムシクイ）



Little Tern（コアジサシ）
I should have posted these images much much earlier before I started to hate them. But I am going to! Because this blog is not about showcasing my best works but rather recording where I am in the whole learning process.

Rubber stamp works

カササギの渡せる橋に
天の川にかかるカササギの橋の絵がほしいからスタンプ作って！といきなり母から頼まれた。



A type of Halimium flower from our Spain trip. I have so may ideas but not enough time these days! Where has May gone?

Recent works

先日、高校時代のワンダーフォーゲル部の恩師が退職されるというので、日本では盛大なお祝い会＆同窓会があった。海外にいるとこういう機会をことごとく逃してしまうけれど、せめて絵だけでもと思い色紙の下の絵を描かせてもらった。懐かしの北アルプス。わたしが住んでいるイースト・アングリアは、山並みどころか地平線が360度真っ平ら。ときどき青い山が恋しくなる。



My frog illustration is used in the RSPB Cambridge group's field report page !



コアラ先輩のご結婚のお祝いに。おめでとうございます。そして末永くお幸せに！

Bubble

Don't let it be forgot
That once there was a spot
For one brief shining moment



A chapter of our life is ending. It was a wonderful, dreamy time in a bubble. It is hard to accept that we each have to go our own way now. It is going to be tough to keep the dream when we are separated in a small individual bubble floating in the vast world and reality will strike us harder. But we will think back on all the tales that we remember of the days! (And let's see what will happen in 24 years from now.)