Published at: 07:01 pm - Sunday January 15 2012
And she’s off! I’m headed to Costa Rica tonight, to meet my friend Andrew and to go look for a few tasty birds. I need to make drawings and get reference photos for a certain project, and he is co-authoring what looks to be a phenomenal new book… so be assured that this is a very serious work trip (insert a winky here, I hate how emoticons look in print so I will refrain). I’ll try to post photos and sketches as I go along; no promises on internet access as I get massages and eat myself stupid at lodges I mean spend 16 hours a day scouring the rain forest. These trips are usually pretty grueling, in reality. More winks, and smiley faces.
Published at: 12:01 pm - Tuesday January 03 2012
Happily ensconced with family on the high plains of Colorado, I am also happily thinking of warmer climes and further travels. I decorated the endpapers of my next sketchbook in preparation for a trip to Costa Rica this January. It seems my (Not a) Big Year has turned into a strange new Big Life. The illustrations here were a little challenging: the endpapers on a Moleskine sketchbook are not an easy match for water-based media!
Sketchbook 2012, endpaper. From left to right: Green Violetear, Keel-billed Toucan, and Turquoise-browed Motmot (with separated tail). Watercolor, 3.5 x 11″ open.
Published at: 06:12 pm - Friday December 02 2011
Adult White-crowned Sparrow studies (Zonotrichia leucophrys leucophrys). Watercolor, gouache, and ink on tan paper, 11 x 7.5″, 2011.
Published at: 06:11 pm - Monday November 28 2011
Top image: Four studies of an immature White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys, probably subspecies gambelii). Watercolor, gouache, and pencil on tan paper, 11 x 7.5″, 2011.
Bottom image: detail of same drawing.
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