Putting My Bird Obsession to Good Use

Northern Cardinal

American White Pelican

Golden-Crowned Kinglet

Herring Gull

This is what I have been drawing lately. I have five more birds at this point. But... it's bed time and I shouldn't be scanning at this hour. Anyway, I love them. I friggin' LOVE birds. 

I was sitting with my dog in my backyard yesterday and I was bird watching. I have this really cheap pair of binoculars that don't do anything, but they make me feel like a bird guru. There was the loudest Blue Jay that was tossing seeds everywhere. My dog was chasing them all over the yard. Hilarious. Back to the topic - my entire book will be based on adventures with binoculars. Binoculars(a great word) are an essential tool in enjoying the details of nature. Each page of the book will be a different adventure. Birds, beach birds, shells, bugs, flowers, plants, fruit, veggies, critters, dogs, reptiles, squirrels, bears, etc. Very animal-loving-hippie-fun-adventurous-silly-cool.

As you can tell the "nature" isn't exactly Yellowstone material. It is more the appreciation of nature that tends to be in the backyard. What do you think of the watercolor? My scanner stinks, but I think you get the idea. 

Toodles. 

Kristina.

Birds of South Africa

Lilac Breasted Roller (my very favorite)

King Fisher

Go Away Bird (because is make a sound like "goway! goway!")

Southern Yellow Billed Hornbill

so, i have noticed that everyone(most i have seen) with influencial blogs does not use any caps. i guess if you use caps it can signify that you are trying to hard? either way, i think i will give it a shot. at work, i am always so careful to have perfect punctuation and caps, so this will be a challenge. hahaha i know, who cares?

anyway, a great family friend recently traveled to africa. they had an amazing camera and took amazing pics... i guess you might get some of those if you go on the same safari as oprah. Ok, that's it, I can't do the no caps thing. That was seriously stressing me out and I need to capitalize things like "Africa."Anyway, I was most blown away by their pics of the birds in Africa (mostly Botswana because the land is reserved for the animals.) My work has taken a few turns lately, but I am starting to create some scientific but experimental drawings of birds. I want to enjoy the art of observation, but I would also like to stylize some things about the birds that I illustrate. I like to exaggerate the things I love in nature because, to me, they are more beautiful in my head... and they can't poop on my head. Take a look at some of these birds.