Sketching from Photos Provided by Mickey Phelps

There is a Facebook group I follow called Legacy Nature Trails.  It is located on the other side of Leesburg and this group is made up of those folks who live in the gated community called Legacy.  Within this area are ponds and a nature trail the residents love to walk and take photos of the flora and fauna they encounter.

Often I see photos shared that I absolutely love and I'll write the person asking permission to sketch from their photos.  One such person is Mickey Phelps.  Yesterday he shared a group of photos taken of these ducks I've never seen before.

With kind permission, here are two of my sketches of Black Bellied Whistling Ducks.  I found them quite intriguing.

After I shared these with Mr. Phelps, he sent me another photo of one of their resident Bald Eagles.  A beautiful shot of this magnificent bird in flight.

This one was way more complicated due to all the detail in the wing.  My mind has trouble with a lot of detail because I want to include it all......having trouble seeing past all the detail for general shapes.  Being the case, this next one I thought best to use the grid method.  Even with that I found myself getting lost with wing detail and what went in which one inch square.........lol.  BUT, I stuck with it taking four hours to complete.

Using grid and 6B for line work and "color" 

Adding a background on separate layer should I decide to print off just the eagle to glue in one of my journal books and print of my digital work I keep in an Itoya presentation book.

The process: