birdspot

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.

Adult White-crowned Sparrow studies (Zonotrichia leucophrys leucophrys). Watercolor, gouache, and ink on tan paper, 11 x 7.5″, 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.

My “fiscal” year has come to a close, and the Big Year I was not doing is done. I will keep traveling through the end of the calendar year, however, and perhaps even after that. I have a lot of work to do: drawings to make, stories to pen, 4 sparrow species to find before 2012. I will begin by posting drawings and by making thanks to all of the wonderful people that showed me any form of support this year (even an answered email would often make my day).

This drawing – my apologies for the low-res phone photo of it – traveled with me for a good portion of the year. I was trying to get it to its new home in Rhode Island, but until now I couldn’t stop in the state due to scheduling and whatnot. Today I finally dropped it off and said goodbye. I had come to think of it as a good luck charm of sorts, carefully wrapped and hidden in the back of my car on multiple trips across the country. It is a largish drawing, and was a significant commission for me, so it was also a reminder to take care of myself and the car to try and ensure nothing happened to it. In other words, it was ridiculous that I kept it with me instead of crating, insuring, and shipping it, though I loved that it was always there in the back of my beater Subaru, a remembrance of a beautiful place and people I cared about very much.

For my first round, then, I send gratitude to the Ahearns for their patience and for (inadvertently) helping to finance an amazing experience.

Image: Little Compton, RI. approx. 30 x 18″, pen on paper