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ぷらっと静岡の旅♪後編

田貫湖では、夕陽に染まる富士山を眺めながらゆっくりとした時間を過ごしました。刻一刻と変わる空の色に合わせて富士山の表情も変化し、湖面に映る姿は息をのむ美しさ。日が沈むまで、ただその景色を眺めていたくなるような贅沢な時間でした♪

道中で立ち寄った朝霧高原では、のんびり草を食む牛たちに癒やされました。広々とした牧草地と雄大な富士山。どこか北海道を思わせるような風景が広がり、思わず足を止めてしまいます。

そして今回、予想以上に心を奪われたのが白糸の滝。正直あまり期待せずに訪れたのですが、その印象は良い意味で裏切られました。湾曲した岩肌から無数の細い滝が流れ落ちる光景はまるで自然が織りなす巨大なカーテン。優雅さと迫力が同居する景色に、しばらく見入ってしまいました♪

宿はクラフトビール醸造所を併設した特別な場所。なんと部屋にはビールサーバーが備え付けられていて、出来たてのクラフトビールを好きなだけ楽しめます。お気に入りの一杯をグラウラーに詰め、夕暮れの海辺へ。

波の音を聞きながら浜辺を歩き、流木に腰を下ろして海を眺める。潮風を感じながら飲むクラフトビールは格別で、時間がゆっくり流れていくようでした。豪華な観光地や派手な体験ではなく、こうした何気ないひとときこそが旅の醍醐味なのかもしれません。

富士山の絶景、豊かな自然、美味しいビール、そして心地よい海風。静岡の魅力をたっぷり感じることができた、心ほどける旅となりました。

I wanted the birds to look like they were actually in the space so first thing after doing the draft was to do a lighting study

after that I covered the walls in letters in lieu of a projector/vr headset bc i have neither of those :) Then i take a picture of the section of wall and superimpose the lineart over top of it so I can pencil in the lines

et voila

GIVE IT UP FOR BIRD NUMBUH 5, THE CANADIAN GOOSE, Branta canadensis!!!!

bird 5/14, Bluejay, Cyanocitta cristata

birds 6 and 7: American Goldfinch, Spinus tristis, male and female

BIRD NUMBER 8, (yellow shafted) NORTHERN FLICKERRRRR, Colaptes auratus

genuinely made me start questioning my sanity around day 3, it's half the size the of the goose, WHY did it take me 4 days to finish??

Bird number 9: Red-tailed hawk, Buteo jamaicensis

my chains are broken i am FREE. although i did have a great deal of fun with this, the barring on the wings itself took me like four days and i am READY to move on

this was a week and a half of continuous work so please excuse me for getting a little emotional in the bg 🙏

BIRD NUMBER 10!!! The Male Mallard Duck, Anas platyrhynchos

the male and female ones are gonna be posted separately bc they're taking a lot longer lol but yea! super happy i was able to capture the iridescent green of the head, i found metallic green and blue paint at a craft store that really made his head POP. it looks better in person i promise

ALSO!! As this is the 10th one, BIG announcement. The end is in sight!!!!! I plan to finish within the next 3 weeks and there will be a small dedication ceremony/ unveiling happening at the library to commemorate its completion on the 16th of May. If you live in the Western New York region and want to check it out for yourself shoot me a dm!

aaaand another one bites the duck,

we're movin right along with bird numero 11!! The lady Mallard!! Anas platyrhyncos

power couple that they are, here's bird number 12 and 13,

the Northern Cardinals, Cardinalis cardinalis

and NOW that they are complete, ITS GO TIME, in the next five days (library's closed for mother's day 😭😭) i need to have the GBH fully rendered, the names of the birds vectored, weeded, masked, applied to the wall, and then painted, plus additional cattails throughout. I may be able to get away with just getting the GBH done in time for the unveiling and then just have the names and cattails added later, but i'm gonna really try to get it all done in time. BUT, i have a plan. Part of why i take so long on these is because i really am just figuring it out as I do it lmao. there have been many a time where i am sitting on top of the ladder googling "how to paint birds" but I think if i take the time tomorro to do all that figuring out how to approach it beforehand, this will go a lot faster. I may also recruit some of my artist friends to help with the placing of the names... hrmm we'll see.

Anyways, shout out to the librarian who tracked down exactly the thing i needed so i could figure out where to place the highlights in my birds eyes, ur the real mvp

Bird number 14 out of 14,

The Great blue heron, Ardea herodius

thank you to everyone who reached out or got excited about this project, it genuinely gave me the fuel i needed to keep going. In total, the 480+ total hrs it took me to cover this wall pales in comparison to how long its expected to spend on there, hopefully imparting a sense of beauty and love for the natural world to the next generation and here's hoping i'm only getting started with these.

Sacrifice