Auks

I’ve been toying with the idea of making an Auks poster, and I wanted to draw one bird per day in August, so an auk a day it is! Including the extinct Great Auk, they are a group of 25 species, so I should be able to complete the family in the month. I ended up starting early, drawing the four British species I’ve seen at Flamborough Head: Common Guillemot, Razorbill, Atlantic Puffin and Little Auk. I had never drawn a several species composition, trying to keep the proportions natural. This has allowed me to explore new features of my drawing software, like layer groups.

Today I completed the Great Auk, one of the last bird species to become extinct in Europe. I used the Guillemot for size reference, and I decided to leave it in, as it gives a very nice idea of what impression must have made to see a Great Auk on its cliff colonies.

Inktober drawings

This October, I used Inktober as motivation to draw daily. I was not close to a drawing every day, but I managed a few drawings. All these are physical drawings, most on black sharpie on paper

Little Owl.

Singing Pied Flycatcher

Razorbill

Pair of Jackdaws.

Piping Oystercatchers.

Blackbird with cocked tail.

Coot.

Whinchat.

Treecreeper.

 

Angry Razorbill

It had to be a Razorbill this week, after my very close encounter with one of this amazing birds. I had the chance of examining its surprisingly yellow mouth close by, and I based this sketch on the behaviour of one bird threatening a neighbour on the cliff.