I made this cute little birdy, this afternoon, while waiting for a video call with my parents and siblings.
The idea was that my brother and sister in The Netherlands, once arrived at my parents' place, would video call my twin sister and I ( located in Portugal ).
It's our dad's 72nd birthday and he was going to unwrap some presents, the idea was for my twister and I to be 'present' at the unwrapping too.
Yes, the idea was there, but helaas pindakaas ( alas peanutbutter ), we didn't manage to get on the video call together.
First my sister located in Holland, arrived late at my parents' place, then my twin sister wasn't around when we tried to call
( I later found out she had forgotten about it, busy as she is preparing her guesthouse for the first paying guests of the season ( who will arrive tomorrow ).
Instead of waiting for a call - my siblings back in The Netherlands expected my twin sister to call back, I decided to get my hands dirty and do some carving and inking.
I also managed to do a bunch of other things, as the wait turned out longer than expected.
One of today's themes was birds. Not only does my dad really like birds, so we shared bird sounds in the family app today, he also shared a picture of a magpie, hiding in the grass.
I guess it was that picture that got me to pick the story titled Little Hyper and The Magpie(s) as today's illustration to lino carve.
Although I drew 3 magpies on my 10x15cm piece of linoleum, I ended up carving only one ( so far ), sitting in a tree.
I might or might not carve the other ones, at a later time
This is the original drawing that I based this on:
Although I kind of like that original drawing ( where I used charcoal - or literally a piece of burnt three, a remnant of the devastating forest fires of October 2017, that took place half a year before I arrived in Portugal ), I can't help but really love the close up of this single bird on my lino print.
It might not look like a magpie but it sure looks cute, and I can't help but feel that I managed to make the tree look pretty tree like.
At the top of this post I actually shared the four steps that led to this illustration. The first one, at the top right corner, hardly shows the bird, I hadn't carved deep enough and used too much ink.
For the second, third and fourth print, I adjusted the carving, ever so slightly, to see more of the details that I wanted to catpture.
I will end today's write up with a fragment of the story this illustration stands for:
Magpie was making noise, again,
sitting on a high branch of an old beech.
Personally, Hypersensitivosaurus thought that the magpie's noise was one of the most annoying animal sounds that he'd ever heard.
Not that it wasn't a beautiful bird,
but that NOISE that came out of it!
If the bird would just keep its beak shut,
it would have been a completely different story.
Sometimes he would want to go back to eating poultry,
just to get rid of that annoying sound.
Now I think of it, the story contrasts quite a lot with the cute little birdy that I produced today but hey, I like that.
Life is all about contrast!
The full story ( and 21 other tales ) can be read in my book.
It would be awesome if you choose to support me, by buying my dino ( and, at times, other animals ) art on my NFT Showroom page
Or you can reserve a copy of this upcoming book - The Life of Hypersensitivosaurus: 22 Short Stories about Dinos and other animals - by sending me 22 Hive or 22 HBD.
Postage will be calculated when the books are finally ready to travel your way.
Berries are also welcome ( you only need HBD - Hive Backed Dollars - for that though ). Yes, this friendly raptor likes fruit ( as mentioned in the story from defeat to fig tree ).
And if you're not active on Hive, you can always choose to gift a coffee to me, on here: https://ko-fi.com/hypersensitivosaurus
Big raptor hug ( with stretched out tiny arms and without the claws ),
Hypersensitivosaurus