New Work, New Bird Series!
We are already half way through the year, life is getting super busy and I am finally (and thankfully) getting into my groove! As I have mentioned previously I felt unmotivated and a little lost in the direction of my work earlier this year as I got it into my head that I needed to draw a completely different species when starting new work. I really don’t know why I thought this but when the realisation hit me that I was my own boss and could draw whatever made me feel inspired, it all changed for the better!
I went back to drawing the animals that I love to draw and the ideas started flowing! I decided to create a new series of work based on British birds and started by developing a series of twelve mini pieces on 11cm x 12cm pieces of watercolour block .
I am planning on mounting them within frames, exposing the ripped textured edges as a contrast to the crisp marks and textures of the pen and the soft wash of the watercolour.
The minis will be coming with me to Art:Surrey art fair at Epsom Racecourse in the autumn, and yes they will definitely be framed with non reflective glass so all the detail can be seen! I also think I may add to this collection in the future as there are so many British Birds I would like to paint and draw (I have even started a list!)!
Although I have loved building up the mini British Birds collection, I also really enjoy working on a large scale in an attempt to capture a snippet of the habitat birds share within the branches of the trees as I did with the Hummingbird and Tanager pieces.
After some research on which British Birds migrate (surprisingly there aren’t many!) I decided to create a series of four large but narrow panels depicting British Birds during each season. I used a selection of the British Birds from the mini collection to create a composition where there was movement and interaction between the birds.
The first season I decided to depict was ‘Spring’ (title yet to be decided!) in my usual watercolour wash and pen detail style. A snapshot of a tree busy with life during this hopeful season, I wanted to capture the inquisitiveness of the Nuthatch, the quietness of blue tits and a watchful Jay guarding its nest with an apple blossom background. I thoroughly enjoyed becoming lost in this piece, so much so as soon as it was finished I started planning the next panel for ‘Summer’.
I want each of the four panels to be individual but also ‘fit’ together as a series. For ‘Summer’ I kept the same format of a ‘snapshot’ of a tree with the movement and interaction of birds to maintain a consistency. To make it individual I changed the species of birds, this time including a single watchful magpie, several busy Wrens and a couple of perching House Sparrows. As with ‘Spring’, I allowed the tree to reflect the season, this time with apples grown from the apple blossom from the first panel. I plan on continuing this theme with the ‘Autumn’ and ‘Winter’ panels.
Since working on this series I feel my style when drawing birds has developed further as I play with and have become more confident in adding marks. Once framed these four panels will also be coming with me to Art:Surrey along with the British Bird minis.
The panels are taking longer to complete as I am currently having to balance this work alongside the six book illustrations I am also working on; very different work in many ways but both have the same October deadline - eek! Needless to say the second half of this year is turning out to be very different to the first half in both the amount of work and levels of excitement! Sometimes it feels pretty full on especially when I factor in three children, house renovation plans and my eldest starting Secondary School in September! But I absolutely love it and it is worth the balancing and evening work! I feel extremely lucky and wouldn’t have it any other way! Now, back to work;)!