Sent my student profile off today, mentioned the cube idea to her so I'll see what she says.

I went sketching and photographing the birds and the settings today down in Talbot Green (the place where all the Jackdaws congregate). Got some great images - like the one above which shows really good shapes for their wings, I tried sketching them flying too but I ended up getting stuck with the same wing shape, so it will be useful to have this reference to vary the shapes. One sketch I did of the setting is this long panoramic one (helped by the fact that one of my new sketch books is a big A3 one, bound at the thin side when held horizontally, so when it's opened out it's a double A3 in length). I used this to sketch a wide view of the trees and lampposts silhouetted against the setting sun. It could look quite dramatic worked up in oils on a big format.

The setting used to be old marsh land but is now covered by shops like Matalan, Asda and - as can be seen from the sketch above - McDonalds. I thought about editing this from the sketchbook and keeping the image as a pure sort of 'wildlife' setting, but I thought I actually liked it's inclusion, it serves as a counterpoint to the surroundings. The birds have probably been using that spot for a lot longer than what McDonalds have and I like the way that the 'golden arches' sign is diminished by it's surroundings.

I'm going to try and merge the images of the photo's of the birds flying with the sketch of the setting and the trees. I'll probably try it in acrylics on a largish piece of paper, I'd also like to try it with a painting knife and get thick texture on it as I have been reading a lot on Kyffin Williams recently and I love his use of the painting knife.