CONCEPT : Blog entry 10

These are some of the photos, of the parrots, that I have been taking recently. I wont add all of them here (theres around 40 I think) but you can find them on my Flickr here, and I'll also print them and add them to my sketchbook. There will be more of these to come through out the summer.

Theres also a couple of photos from an older album taken at tropical bird land too, here.

These are just some of the images that I am working from,, as well as having some of my live models knocking around the house.

CONCEPT : Blog entry 9

Still thinking of the idea for a parrot guide, I remembered an idea I originally had around the text for the Red List project when working on Babel; using images of feathers to create text (found in this post).

This could work quite well for this idea too, so I spent a little time making some samples of the text. If I were to actually use this idea, I would take my own photos for use, and also spend more time thinking about an experimenting with which fonts to use, but for now this gives a good idea of whats in my head.

Experimentation with text and feather imagery

I have also started doing a couple of water colours of the parrots, thinking of Matt Sewell's simplistic style with the blocks of colour to highlight the birds characteristic qualities.
(My pages got stuck together..)

Sketchbook experimentation - Catalina Macaw

Sketchbook experimentation - Ecelectus & Blue and Gold Macaw

I need to practice more... my first macaw looks ok...the ecelectus looks horrible, but i'm not sure why. They have a really funny simple face, when simplified even more apparently it goes to hell...but, overall the blocks of colour work! its just my drawing ability that needs working on. Also I need to take my time, and let the individual blocks dry before adding the next section. I think I just need to do more and practice..and do something about the feet too.

I'm working on  cockatiel at the moment that, so far, looks lovely, I'll add this later.

CONCEPT : Blog entry 8

Since that devil, Matt Sewell, has already done one of my most promising ideas, I've been thinking of other things around this (similar but not quite) I could do.

I had been thinking of something relating to British wild life, but then I had the idea of something around parrots.

I work with and house a small parrot refuge (Potty Parrots Refuge UK). It occurred to me that I could produce a series of small parrot care guides (for different species), complete with illustrations, with the hopes of preventing the amount of birds needing to be rescued. These could be sold by the rescue to raise funds.

I need to do more research, obviously - try and figure out what species to cover (I'm thinking initially maybe 5 short books covering the most common types of bird people have; cockatoos, macaws, amazons, cockatiels, and lovebirds..maybe) and what information would be relevant and helpful. Depending on how much information, what birds etc. I may produce more than this. I would like to do one on ring necks, purely to cover the fact that these live wild in the UK now. I also feel that I should do one on African Greys, as these birds are particularly neurotic, and this is something that many people do not realise before purchasing, and as a result, many end up being moved from home to home

  

I also want to have a go at drawing some, and see how that turns out...luckily I have lots of models waiting for me at home.