Elegantly Wasted

Aaahh, lovely drake Pintail! I've not had many opportunities to sketch these fine birds so it was nice to come across one at Old Moor recently. Being a bit out of practice I really struggled to get anything remotely near to capture the elegance of these birds. Several pages later I got something similar to the bird. It was dull, grey morning and everything seemed rather 'flat', so the bird's sharp lines really stood out against the pale greys of the background. Whilst studying this  bird I can really appreciate why bird artists wax lyrical about them. To me, though, it was more or less just another duck which was a real pain to draw!
Cheers

                                        Field sketch of pintail, Old Moor, 18th October 2015