Osprey Oggle

This is another in a series of osprey studies. Ospreys lack the supraorbital ridge which is so typical of predatory birds and this makes them appear wide-eyed and over caffeinated! I love the personality. All my pics of them seem to show them oggling the world. ‘Oggle’ is a funny word. Seems to suit them.
Today I was tidying up in the studio and re-discovered the Mungyo black pastels in my drawing stash. I used them in figure drawing classes but never did find the perfect match of paper to bring out the magic of this gorgeous dark crumbly charcoal. Today, I used cartridge sketch paper and my fingers to paint. A bit like finger painting when we were kids. Why did we ever stop?
I’ll combine a few images I have of this muse and her nest and switch to brushes and oil paint. The drawing will eventually end up being trashed and forgotten but the process of making my osprey oggle needs a repeat with maybe an owly owl, a heretic heron….hmmm.