Film Festival is over for this little cat

Posted on | September 19, 2009 | 1 Comment

Do you hear that sighing in the wind? That’s the thousands of people here in Toronto that know the end of the International Film Festival signals the complete end of summer. Fall is officially here. Some people look for the leaves falling from the trees… TIFF people look for the last movie reels to leave town.

I’ve been so busy this week I’ve not had a chance to blog. What with movies, taking the car in for repairs, movies, drawing, movies and the dreaded work beast, I’ve hardly had time to sit and think. I have spent a lot of spare time working on my sketches. I’ve been concentrating on getting the eyes and claws right. Soon I’ll be tackling the beaks. I am pleased with my progress on claws especially. I have pages of bird claws scattered about my room. I never realised there was so much diversity in bird design. When I started drawing birds, it was more an exercise in trying to get the perspective correct. I never envisioned it would turn into an obsession. There are subtle differences in how the ring around their eye looks, how their claws and lets are designed… good grief, I’ve had a Darwinesque epiphany with my drawing! What is truly amusing to me is that this all started because I simply wanted to draw some simple streetscapes. I stumbled with some god aweful ones and then thought “why not start with something smaller”. I didn’t realise there was so much detail and delight with little birds.

I must admit, I have to blame a couple of my customers for this bird turn. I have 5 customers who are hard core birders – I think they are called twitchers in the UK. They have travelled to the Antartic to see penguins, the jungles of Papua New Guinea to see birds of paradise … you get the idea. Yet they are still thrilled with little song birds here in the Toronto area. I love going to fix their computers because it gives me a chance to see their latest photos. I found out the other day that one of my favourite birders died of cancer.  I had nicknamed him Penguin Grandpa because one of his granddaughters told her class that he could come in and tell them all about penguins because he knows “everything there is about them”. He was going through his photos of his trip to the Antartic fretting over what to say when I laughed and called him Penguin Grandpa. He laughed and threw up his hands and said his granddaughter seemed to think he was an expert on the subject and he couldn’t disappoint her. He gestured to the computer and told me that was why he needed the computer fixed so urgently. I still chuckle over that. He was already very ill at the time, but I couldn’t help hoping.

So good bye Penguin Granddad… thanks for sharing your passion with me.

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Category: Day in the Life, Going to the birds
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Comments

One Response to “Film Festival is over for this little cat”

  1. Polprav
    October 16th, 2009 @ 2:52 pm

    Hello from Russia!
    Can I quote a post in your blog with the link to you?