Lovely little bird.
Hobby Falcon
pen drawing
Herring Gull Chick
Another baby bird. I like the fuzziness of the head, but I think the eyes aren’t great. They look a bit glazed and lifeless.
Flamingo
I hate this bird. This may officially be the ugliest, most rushed bird I drew the whole year.
We had gone out for dinner and a concert with friends, and we got home at 2am. I was hot, sweaty, and tired from dancing like a maniac. (Side note: one of the nice things about getting older is that I don’t give a rat’s ass anymore about what I look like on the dance floor. I’m not trying to impress anyone and I’ll likely never see most of these other people again, so I don’t care. I have been told that this inhibition makes me a better dancer than I have ever been. Oh, how I wish I could have learned this lesson sooner and enjoyed larger chunks of my youth.) But I wasn’t going to miss another day of my drawing project, dammit! So I drew this hurried atrocity before crawling under the covers. Ugh. He is horrible. I am sorry, little flamingo. You cannot compare to your brothers, not even the other rushed flamingo I drew in January.
Golden Eagle
I had fun doing the feathers around the eye area.
Great Frigate
If you love odd looking birds, then the great frigate is your man. The male frigate has a giant red puffy sack on his throat, which he inflates during mating season like a balloon. Actually, a male will inflate the “gular sac” and shake his head vigorously from side to side, attracting the attention of lady birds flying by. Which, in bird speak, is almost the equivalent of a floppy air-man used at car dealerships – doing a crazy air-fueled dance to stop traffic – only to sell himself as a mate and not to sell used cars.
In any case, a truly weirdly wonderful bird.
Harpy Eagle
I am proud of this one, good eyes, good lines, not overworked.
According to my two seconds of googling, the harpy eagle is the largest and most powerful raptor in the Americas, and one of the largest in the world. So his glare is well deserved. Do not mess with him. He will back up that threat with some muscle and sharp bits.
Hooded Pitohui
Fun fact: the pitohui is the first documented poisonous bird. Like poison-dart frogs, these birds eat toxic beetles which adds neurotoxins to their feathers and skin. So if you’re ever in New Guinea or thereabouts, and you see one of these guys, don’t lick it. Or touch it.
Emperor Penguin
I was shying away from drawing a penguin because they are just too damned cute. It’s impossible not to draw a cute penguin. And I am leery of getting to cutesy.
But by this time, the baby vibes were really getting to my pregnant head. We had just crossed over Mother’s Day, and I was secretly smiling to myself that I was a mommy-to-be (but not telling anyone). So I drew this mommy & baby adorableness the day after Mother’s Day as an homage to mother’s love.
I know, it’s “aw” inducing, isn’t it?
Stork Outline
Around this time, I hadn’t told anyone that I was pregnant, but it was a prominent thought in my mind. A co-worker took off for maternity leave, and we sent her off with a lovely baby shower. I drew this image for the email invite. I’m proud of it. It’s simple yet elegant, effectively communicated the baby message without being too cheesy. It inspired me to create an image for the invites my friends later used for my shower.
claire meyler 