A girl and her pencils .... The Great Blue Heron begins!

Hello and a very happy Friday to all my artist friends and whoever else has stumbled upon this page whilst surfing Google. I am excited as I always am when starting a new project and a little scared too that it will all go horribly wrong. Why should that bother me? I don't really understand. It is only a piece of paper after all! But I always start each new project wondering if it will work out as something that I will love or not. This time I have two concerns. Although this is a big piece (15x10 inches) I am having to work small because so much of the bird is on the paper and I find it really difficult to work so small. My other concern is that I have an idea of what I want for the background but I won't know if it works or not until I try it. And there is a lot of work already gone into this bird to go to waste if the background ruins it. So that is niggling away in my mind.
I often find that a lot of things go through my mind as I work. I mentioned in my last post that I had been thinking about comparisons - comparisons and popularity and generally how we feel about our own work. I know I have said often about the dangers of comparing ourselves to others. So easy to do. So easy to feel that our work is not as good as someone else's work. And now we have the fickle world of social media to deal with. It is so easy to start to feel that how good or not your work is depends upon how many likes it has or how many followers you get. And I really wanted to say to anyone who feels that way, that it really means nothing. I know when I browse through artwork in various places that something not that fabulous might have thousands of likes and some simply stunning work is more or less passed over. One thing I have learned in life is that if you build your self esteem on comparisons with others or by how much other people like you or what you do, you are going to be very miserable. Learning to value yourself and your own work is what matters. Draw the things you love. If you really love what you create it will show in your work. If others like it, that is nice, but ultimately it doesn't matter. For me the reward is seeing my own progress and creating something that I love. And I like to see the work of others in that way too. We are all together on a journey, so why not encourage each other to be the best we can be - whatever our own best is and wherever we are on that journey.

So above are my first two days of work, and my eyes have really struggled trying to pick up and draw the small detail. I love the unusual angle the reference photo for this bird was taken at and I hope I can capture that properly. I will be trying out my background before going any further with the bird. I want to be certain that it will work! But I love the reference photo (used with the kind permission of fellow Instagramer peatonford) and loving what you do is what it is all about.
​Have the most fantastic weekend, and do remember that the only thing that really matters is that you love what you do. Happy drawing!

Original artwork