I am really enjoying developing the Bird Girl theme, playing about with ideas, images and techniques. I particularly like these first two images which seem to have the folk art feel which appeals most to me. I scanned and coloured the images in Photoshop, but have also been hand colouring (have I mentioned I love colouring in?)
This sleeping woman below worked best in black and white I think, but I have been exploring how I might use the gradient tool in photoshop in my illustrations. The gradiated colour adds to the 'Book of Kells' feel, which a couple of Irish relatives have commented on.
The two below please me least. Both have more of a cartoon feel to them and I don't think I got the patterning or the colour right on them. Interestingly, the bottom image was drawn after I began looking at bird anatomy and markings and I found myself quite stifled as I attempted to get things right. I think my next step will be to continue with my observational drawings of birds, but not try to include them into a bird girl illustration at the moment.
