Birds 30 May

These are some experiments I did with color and pattern, and as always, thinking about shapes in boxes. I've been looking at wallpaper books and am drawn particularly to patterns designs from the Arts and Crafts movement through the 1930's. For the color, I used marker and colored pencil, but when I scanned the images, the colored pencil washed out completely in places, such as in the background of the Flicker Tail-- a drawing I like for it's sense of flight and height.

The colors are not just faded but distorted, so I either need to photograph them, which is a lot more complicated than scanning, or find a different medium for color. Still, it's a good, quick way to do studies. All of these were inspired by images in John James Audubon's  "Birds of America", but needless to say, I don't aspire to imitate.