Brown Pelican

This is a Brown Pelican colored pencil sketch.  I saw these in New Orleans and out in California.  In this instance, the body looked more black to me than the brown so that is how I captured it.  Part of being an artist is to set aside your preconceptions and actually see colors and shapes instead of assuming the brown bird would show up as brown.  You have to train yourself to see the shapes between the wings and legs i.e the negative spaces.  I use these sketches to practice and to work out these relationships.  Plus it works as a meditation for me.