Lesser Scaup in Graphite

I finished my second pencil drawing of this male Lesser Scaup over Memorial Day weekend. There are areas that could be improved upon but I'm amazed it turned out as well as it did. These drawings mean more to me than words can express, not only because I just love to draw but for several years my right thumb hurt so badly that it made that hand essentially unusable. Everything I loved to do, including my wood carving, came to a grinding halt. I couldn't even hold a pencil or paintbrush without extreme pain.

After a few years my thumb finally got better but then it started to hurt because of arthritis. After almost ten years of being side-lined the pain has lessened and I'm finally able to do some carving and a little drawing. I have to be very careful though, because if I overdo it my thumb starts to hurt. I think painting with watercolors would be less stressful on my hands so I bought a set along with a couple books and I'm trying to paint something that looks recognizable. I won't be posting any watercolors for a while :)

I used one of my photos, printed in black and white, for reference to draw the scaup. Everything was drawn free-hand and I used my pencil to transfer measurements from the photo to the drawing. I used four pencils for this drawing; an HB, 2B, 4B and 6B.

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