Alexis - in colour

Commissioned piece.

Avian Alphabet - H, I and J

Anyone wish to make suggestions on what one I should colour in for the cover?

 

Avian Alphabet Colouring Book - F and G

When I first decided to do Grebes for G, I did n't realise there were so many species!

Still managing no more than 11 for each page, have drawn a total of 58 birds so far (and also have 9 hummingbirds for H but I reckon I can get another 2-3 in the page).

Avian Alphabet Colouring Book - D and E

 There are many, many species of duck... I just drew a selection of some of the more interesting and colourful. And they have such funny names - Bufflehead, Widgeon, Smew, Pochard...

The eagles proved to be harder to draw than I thought they would. Especially the Philippines fellow in the back there. My favourite is the Harpy Eagle. She's a character!

C is for Crane

Five species, I think I might need something in the bottom right corner. Also - cranes can be tricky to draw.

Next up - Ducks - will include Smew, Bufflehead and anything else with a cute name. Might have to research the largest duck species - or just draw a shelduck. Not sure if shelducks *quite* count as "ducks".

Avian Alphabet Colouring Book - A and B

My latest project, as you may have noticed, is a colouring book. For the theme, I have chosen birds - specifically Families, and in some cases, Genus.

I have done the best I can to keep the sizes of the birds in proportion to one another.

For A I chose Auks:

 Auks are a Family of birds that make their home in the Northern Hemisphere - a Family that includes Auks, Auklets, Guillemots, Murrelets and my personal favourite, Puffins. They range in size from the Great Auk (flightless and sadly extinct) to the Little Auk. Although they bear a superficial resemblance to penguins, they are not related and this is an example of convergent evolution. All the extant species are capable of flight, and use their wings to "fly" underwater. They are not quite as dept a swimmer as the Penguins.

Bustards are large plains dwelling birds that make their home in steppe type environments across Europe, Asia, Africa and also Australia. The Great Bustard and the Kori Bustard joust for the status of "largest flying bird", with the Great Bustard being the heavier of the pair. Species include Bustards, Korhaans and Florican.

C was going to be for Corvids - a vast family that contains ravens, crows, jackdaws, jays, magpie-jays, scrub-jays, treepies and magpies.However, I think there are just too many for me to do in one go, and it will be better for me to separate out the Genus Jays under "J" (Jays being more colourful than the others). This means, I'm afraid, no crows or ravens - then again, with them being pretty much black, it's not the most interesting page to colour anyway!

So, for C I think I shall do Cranes instead.

Avian Alphabet Colouring Book

A is for Auks (family - Alcidae )
B is for Bunting (family - Emberizidae)(passerine)
C is for Corvids (family - Corvidae)(passerine)
D is for Ducks (family - Anatidae) - bufflehead, smew,
E is for Egret (not really a family, but gives wider range of birds and also the chance to draw heron-types)
F is for Falcons (family)
G is for Grebes (family - Podicipedidae)
H is for Hummingbirds (family - Trochilidae)
I is for Ibis (family - Threskiornithidae)
J is for Jacana (family)
K is for Kingfishers (order)
L is for Leafbird(passerine)/Loon/Lark (passerine)
M is for Megapode
N is for Nightjars/Nuthatch
O is for Owls
P is for Parrots/Penguins
Q is for Quail
R is for Rail (family)
S is for Swallow(passerine)/Sparrow(passerine)/Siskin(passerine)/Snipe/Seriema etc
T is for Trogon (family -  includes quetzals)
U is for Umbrellabird (3 species in genus Cephalopterus)
V is for Vulture
W is for Wren (passerine)/Wattlebird (passerine)/Woodpecker
X is for Xenops (genus)(passerine)
Y is for Yellowlegs (two species)/Yahina (Genus in the  Zosteropidae family)(passerine)
Z is for Zosterops (although they all look very much alike) (also a Genus in the Zosteropidae family)(passerine)

The Real Macaw

Alas, my scanner does not take well to red, for which I am very sad. However, this is the coloured in version of an image I made a few years ago. Upon looking at it, I realised that the wing was completely and utterly wrong and thus had to erase it and redraw it with better feather colouration. There is also a lot more detail on the red than can be seen here.

Scarlet Macaw, done with prismacolor pencils on 140 gsm card.

 

This is the prize for Chelsey, aged 12, who won my colouring competition.

Name in Letters

This is the lineart for a friend's daughter. Some two-three years ago I did one for her first child (it was three letters long) and now she has asked me to make one for her second (six letters long, one of which is an X).

Here's the lineart:

A - Aligator
L - Lemur (ruffed)
E - Elephant
X - Xenops (ovenbird)
I - Impala
S - Shark

The Aviangers

133 years ago they took over our land, bringing death and devastation. Now it's time to fight back, our time to rise.

Don't get Angry, get Even!

I'm not sure if this team are going to become part of a roleplaying scenario or possibly even a comic, but we have Kamikaze the falcon (ranger), Kiri the kereru (healer), a fantail (mage), a weka (thief), a kea (some sort of tinkerer/inventor) and Moho the takahe (warrior). Together they fight against the evil mammalian menace.

Yes, I will find names for the other birds - resisting urge to call the weka Aroha and the kea Tiriki, after my other characters.