The crow is one of my favorite birds. I suppose that’s no surprise, given how gothly I was in high school and college. In those years, saying “I like crows” would have been unnecessary. It seemed a given.

But crows retain their appeal. They (and their cousin, the raven) are just so darned clever. There’s a real intelligence there that I just don’t see in the vacant eyes of other common city birds: the pigeon and seagull. (Well, common to my city. When you live this close to the water, seagulls are basically obnoxious, loud pigeons.)

I’m proud of how this one came out. I think the pen & ink was a wise choice of medium. The scratchy quality of the pen nib really added texture. I also lined-up the wide-open mouth of the crow with a red patch on this re-purposed paper. So it worked out that I didn’t need to add coloring to his mouth. Nice.