Crowing
As per usual, I went on a bit of a bird kick last weekend (randomly interspersed with drawing a local maritime museum, but we’ll get to that at a later date). I don’t feel like writing a big elaborate post about all the birds, so let’s just focus on some of my favorite types: Crows! Part of the Corvidae family, these murderous, smart, dark friends continue to intrigue me.
Step one: paper size. I like working within the 6” x 6” size sometimes, it lets my brain relax a little more than if I sat down with a larger sheet of paper.
‘For this batch last weekend, I taped the edges with painters tape. It’s not something I’ve done generally before, but I think it makes sense, especially for end user framing. If I draw all the way to the edges, it would be harder for the person who ends up with this little crow friend to frame him without cropping parts out.
Drawing with the tape down is helpful too because I can feel it as I’m drawing, so I can (kind of ) tell the frame that I need to stay within, with my line.
Paint makes him a little less alien and a little more crow-esque
I don’t know how to paint. I don’t know how to draw. I mean, like, technically I’ve never had someone say “here’s how to draw or paint”, so I kind of just wing it (which is quite appropriate thing to do, in the presence of all of these birds that keep coming out of my pen).
So the paint stage. I use some set that I found on Amazon. It’s the type of set that, each time I’ve needed to re-order it, I’m like “hmm I hope they still have it”. I can adapt if ever it isn’t available anymore, but I like the pre-made colors that it comes with. So… here’s what I went with, for this crow friend.
And of course, some added splatters of green. I don’t know what the splatters are called, do they have an actual name? One of the other fun parts of winging it - not knowing what all the stuff is called!
As I am always wont to do, here is a post-paint close-up/detail shot. If the paint had faded the black line to the point of being noticeable, I would have re-traced the line in the effected area. That didn’t happen here though, he’s pretty good to go as-is.
I like his random not-quite-a-beak beak line under his chin (do crows even have chins?). And his wings and feathers. He just looks pleasant, and I am happy with how he turned out!
Check out the bird section of my shop to see him and the other 6” x 6” birds I made last weekend. Kind of running out of steam to write any more at the moment, but I hope you’ve enjoyed this crow briefing!