Cute Pup

I’ve been enamored with Grackles, and I’ve finished four drawings in the past few weeks. Three of them are of the same Grackle, who sat patiently on a branch, calling repeatedly to warn away other males in the area. This is the third colored pencil drawing on Ampersand Artistbord, and I think they have a neat feeling when they’re all together. I enjoy drawing the branch as much as the bird.
I’ve been experimenting with using fixative on these with hopes they can be framed without glass.
I think using wax pastels and colored pencil on Duralar is my favorite combination of surface and media.
This Grackle spent some time perusing the edge of this pond searching for muddy bits and pieces, probably for a nest. Each time it moved forward in its search, a frog or other little critter would plop into the water, keeping ahead of him, just in case.
Probably best described as multimedia, I started with an Artist Bord by Ampersand and covered it with a coat of Golden Silverpoint Drawing Ground. My first thought was to use metalpoint, but after sketching in the birds on both, I switched to colored pencil. I used some blue ink for the backgrounds, and on the larger piece, I used an aluminum scrubber pad to place some blurry tree branches and a border.