Meet My Neighbors!

The Barn Swallow got its name because it builds its nest almost exclusively on man-made structures. I can attest to this fact as there are families of them that annually build nests on our apartment buildings breezeway. There was only one nest this year, but I still enjoyed watching the chicks grow and eventually strike out on their own. The three babies from this year left last week and, as if this weekend, have stopped returning at night.

Animal mythology stories are fascinating to me. I think they show creative problem solving in early cultures. In the case of the Swallow, early people claimed that it stole fire from the gods to bring to the human race. This angered the gods, so they hurled a fireball at the Swallow, hitting its tail. This is the explanation for their forked tails. Pretty cool, right? Stories like that fill my head with illustration ideas.

For this painting, I used watercolor paper, graphite pencils, Copic brush pen and markers, and some generic watercolor/gouache paints. I’m generally pretty uncomfortable with these kinds of paints. During a scientific illustration assignment in college, however, I found they worked really well. Since I was going for that kind of style here, it was a natural decision.

Well, that’s it for now. Let me know what animals you want to see me draw or paint next and I may give it a shot. Thanks a bunch!

Until next time!

Disclaimer: Edits were made to increase readability. Please see comments for original text and all notated edits.

I love feedback, so if you have any questions, ideas, or requests, make sure to leave a comment below. And, if you need more fun stuff to shove into your eyeballs, hop over and check out my YouTube channel, Chimp Skipper, or my online portfolio.

#art #illustration #wildlife #birds #drawing #sketching #watercolor #ink #scientific #slothicorn #artexplosion #process #timelapse