Fantasy Red Bird

From digital to analog, that has always been my M.O. I worked in computer graphics for 15 years before I returned to traditional analog art. Yesterday I finished shading some stacked stripes on the Ipad, today I was back drawing on paper. Full circle (sometimes more of an egg than a circle).

I have no idea why, but birds have been on my mind. We watched Forrest Gump movie the other night, for the umpteenth time, and Jenny's desperate prayer to become a bird so she could fly far far away felt so sad! It struck me that while she tried so hard to have a full life, Forrest on the other hand had a simpler approach (life is like a box of chocolates), and his life was full of beautiful and interesting events.

Crazy musings aside, here is the picture, created with various reddish pens:

Here is the work in progress, created over a 4x4 inch watercolor paper tile using various red pens, and a few colored pencils.

Here is a close-up of the final picture. There is so much detail on the picture that I used very little shading, only a little with colored pencils.

If you would like to see a lesson on how to create this type of fantasy bird, then contact me to vote for it!