A few years ago I found a great blue heron skeleton revealed under melting snow in a ditch near my house.  I don’t know how it met its end, but the bird was almost completely decomposed and I decided to take the skull. As a specimen, it’s fascinating; as reference for painting, it’s quite useful. The colored pencil study here is life sized, based on the 9-inch skull. I’ve also been doing gesture drawings of herons as a precursor to doing a larger painting. Since the ground here in New York is… Read More