I had fun making this little sketch of a chickadee for the Wilderness Art Challenge, which is a monthly art challenge hosted by Gary Keimig. He has some really lovely nature art and photography, so I would check him out. The scan didn’t come in that great because of the buckling of the paper, but I wasn’t aiming for perfection.
©2011 Carolyn A. Pappas, Chickadee. Graphite and watercolor, apx 5.5 x 4 inches in watercolor sketchbook.
A bit of trivia for you: I have only used birds as a subject three other times in my life before, when I was a preteen. I painted a bluebird for my grandmother, a parakeet for my grandfather and a cardinal for someone in my church who collected them.
Since then I haven’t drawn birds at all, mostly because I felt that the Internet was becoming too saturated with them, especially owls and peacocks. Birds seem to be a good “self-contained” subject and I have noticed that they are a favorite subject for illustrators and artists who like to stylize their work more. For more bird themed art, check out Geninne Zlatkis and Natasha Newton, who have made a name for themselves by painting birds almost exclusively.
Do you know of an artist who paints birds? Let me know in the comments!
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