The thought occurred to me that it could be a lot of fun to try to come up with my own style of ornithological illustration based on primarily on photos, yet referencing work from some of the greats.
My goal is to create paintings that not only show the important identification features, but also creating a bird that has some life and action to it. I feel like I want to be somewhere between Audubon animated style and Sibley's refined hyper accurate reference style, maybe leaning a bit more towards Sibley.
The only criteria, I am limiting myself to birds identified withing the boundaries of my property.
Here are my first two attempts, super fun and quick. I cant wait to fall into a groove and find my style. These are painted with acrylic on Gessoed Masonite, 8x10".
-Bill
1 comment:
Great idea, Bill!
That is my biggest challenge with guides by Audobon and Sibley. They are great as art, but much less helpful when identifying actual birds. Three dimension, movement, angles are all necessary in identification. It's hard to tell what hawk is flying about in the sky when the only reference you have is a two dimensional, still life profile!
Best of luck!
Hope you can come back to show our students your recent works soon.
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