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!
I had some lovely emails and tweets about the Rooks thank you all! I just wanted to share this from Jennifer: "Val, your solitary rook reminds me of a Haiku poem, by Basho, which I had to write an assignment on when I did my OU course in Japanese poetry:-
"On a bare branch
A rook roosts:
Autumn dusk."
Birds, trees and Haiku what an exquisite mix.. thank you Jennifer