Colin has just finished these two wonderful studies of eiders – one in pencil, one in watercolour. Since eiders are my very favourite birds, I have snaffled the watercolour as a birthday present (no matter that my birthday isn’t until January!)
The pencil drawing was inspired by wonderful sightings of a ‘creche’ of eider ducklings in the shallow waters near Connel, just north of Oban, last year. The mothers were grouped together, minding their infants, while the dads were off somewhere, possibly bodyboarding or jet-skiing or something. (You never know!) The ducklings were an adorable sight, diving and popping up all over the place, and this sketch has captured them perfectly.
Click on either image to enlarge it. You can view the eider sketch on our website, where it’s now for sale. 
Images copyright © Colin Woolf
14 Comments
Mjollnir
Beautiful 😀
Jo Woolf
Thank you! 🙂
A H Gray
These are beautiful! Colin is a very talented artist 🙂
Jo Woolf
Thank you very much! He does have a remarkable talent. Especially for drawing eiders, in my opinion! 🙂
tearoomdelights
What a wonderful birthday present! There are few things more delightful than ducklings bobbing about in the water.
Jo Woolf
Yes, so nice! I am going to run out of places to put these pictures but that doesn’t stop me wanting them!
Carmen Mandel
Lovely and full of life; adorable diving baby!. Wonderful feather details and that mindful mum expressiveness. Such great artist Colin is.
Jo Woolf
Thank you very much, Carmen! I will tell him. I love their expressions too!
tomsimard
Just excellent. Love them.
Jo Woolf
I know, they’re lovely, aren’t they!? Thanks for your comment! 🙂
ordinarygood
Great early birthday present Jo. We are waiting to see the first ducklings here and I am sure some of the garden birds are nesting. Eiders look to be alert mothers. Colin captures that so well.
Jo Woolf
That sounds good – sounds as if spring is well on its way! Here, I noticed recently that the robins are singing their ‘autumn’ song which is different from the spring one.
Eiders are excellent mothers, I think, and how cute are the babies? – you can see how much we love them!
dhphotosite
Magnificent…the detail is amazing! And Happy Early Birthday to you!
Jo Woolf
Thank you!! 😀