birds

Birds of the Month - Blue Jays AND Cedar Waxwings

I’ve been slowly assembling content for a new bird book and I’d been meaning to do a group portrait to show off how friendly birds can be when it comes to sharing resources and space.

I loved painting a few different bird types at the same time and digging into their little faces to find personalities. :)

Enjoy a process video and I’ll be posting the final piece early in 2025. :)

I’ll be donating 100% of the profit from sales of Some More Okay Birds to the Audubon Society, so stick around for release day somewhere in Q4 2025 to pick up some okay bird art while protecting birds and the places they need, today and tomorrow. :)

Some More Okay Birds -

Art is all about practice, so I’ve decided I’m going to kick off my next artbook’s production with a series of blog posts about my favorite birds and how I’m practicing my art.

First up, sketches! Typically I’ll assemble a reference board of about 8 or 9 different shots of the same bird and produce sketches of each while I try to take in all the various features of the lil’ guy.

I’ll typically produce a series of sketches like the ones below. I don’t obsess over details here, I’m just trying to capture a pose, or a feeling, or maybe just a bit of form.

I’m always looking for birds that look a LITTLE angry at you for being there. I like to feel a little subversive and making nature look angry at us is my little contribution to the conversation around human-animal relations. :)

Look forward to more of these little guys, I’ve got to put together 40 or more paintings for my next book, so there will be plenty of sketches between then and now. :)

- Jo