ENDANGERED: Fine Art & Photography Contest 2021 Submission

To capture a large group of shore birds taking flight at once in an arresting painting or drawing has been an objective of mine for a handful of years. In December 2019, I finally succeeded in shooting some viable reference material for this kind of project. After much cropping and editing, and then further editing on my full-size photo proof with an art crayon to eliminate legs, and beaks, and wings that just didn't seem to make sense, I started on what became my "insanity project." I elected to work in graphite so that I could reduce the resulting drawing to a symphony of lines, shapes and values. For me, absent the romance of color, Take Flight portrays a compelling, engaging cacophony of motion and drama.