Some Rooks

I have been sketching rooks today (a very favourite bird of mine) because I am hoping to make a lino or woodcut cut soon. I am not trying for a perfect rook drawing but more for “essence” of rook.

Listening to the food music of worms

I am actually going to base the linocut on this old drawing, above, which I had made for my  “The Food Music of Worms”  post, well over a year ago now. This rough sketch just seemed to capture my father’s poetic observations about rooks.
But the sketch is too scrappy and ill defined and I do need to understand rooks a bit better. I have spent many hours watching them as they strut around the stubble, make noisy and argumentative roosts in the tree tops and soar and glide on the breeze. I think they are splendid birds.

 

In this windy weather they always look tatty. Sometimes like a old bundle of black rags tied together, their long loose feathers wind blown and ruffled.

A drawing for a woodcut or lino cut will have to be simplified quite a bit to accommodate my inexperienced cutting skills. I am planning a series of local birds. The daily walks and sketches are making me realise how much I love them.

I will post my progress as the print develops. There’s optimism for you!