Audubon - Blog Posts

The Bird is the Word

Another thing I wanted to have in my portfolio is an acrylic piece. My teacher recommended that I try copying Audubon. I picked his Black-capped chickadees. I really like the red berries that offset the black and white birds.

So the thing is...I haven’t painted acrylic before this piece. Well, that’s only half true. I wasn’t too worried because I do lots of miniature painting and that uses acrylic paint. Sorry, I’m not into WarmaHordes too much (though I have a battle box. Go Circle!). I actually have a plethora of LotR miniatures. Because Mumakil. Because Felbeasts. Because Riders of Rohan and their HORSIES. :D To sum up, I painted all the animals, and none of the dudes are painted. lolz.

So I have practice using acrylic, I just never put it on a flat piece before. So here it goes!

That ever crucial step of mapping and measuring.

One of the biggest challenges I had on this was learning how to mix colors. See with miniature painting, you buy all the shades of red you need (or you can at least). So you can have Gore Red, Horde Red, Blood of My Enemies Red, The Color Your Face Turns When You Get Beaten Really Bad At Lock&Load Red, etc. I needed what I would consider “Cranberry.” My best guess would be red with a touch of blue in it. That gave me a black-maroon. Or I guess “Prune” or “Black Current” ;) The shade was actually closer to “What The Crap Am I Doing” Red. then I found that I really did have the mixture right - but then I added white and a beautiful shade of Cranberry appeared! It WAS super effective!

Aren’t they just the most beautiful shade of berry you ever did see?

There’s quite a gap in picture stages here. I blame Netflix. Probably Buffy. Suffice it to say I discovered chickadees are not “white and black birds” but rather shades of brown and grey and yellow and white and black. Also teeny tiny brushes are my friend for line work. (Thank you miniature painting!) Not the most beautiful of lines. More practice always!

Adding more “not super straight” lines. The more you add, the better they look!

Chickadees, in fact, have pale yellow chins.

This is a closeup on one part of the painting. I’m showing that I don’t like how light and dark it is. I’m about to see what happens when I dry brush pale yellow or white over the top.

Success! (at least to my eyes)

Can’t have Black-capped Chickadees without black caps.

Green leaves turned out better than I had hoped. Sadly everything looks better from far away and not so close, but I’m sure practice will help with that. I also did a lot of detail touch up. I highlighted the feathers in white and added black flecks. Lots of tiny lines that were straitened with tiny lines in other colors.

Yay! I pushed my comfort zone and it turned out ok!

Hog Island Audubon

Some of you may know that this past June I went to the Coastal Maine Bird Studies for Teens Audubon camp on Hog Island, off the coast of Maine. I wanted to make a post to let you all know about how great it was. 

It’s an incredible program that allowed me to meet some great birders and ornithologists. Thanks to this camp, I was able to connect with people who have similar interests. I learned so much about birds, along with many other things. Here are some of the absolutely amazing things I learned about during this camp: The history of Hog Island, the history of the Hog Island Audubon Camp, Project Puffin, Project Snowstorm, shorebird ecology, the science behind birdsong, global warming’s affect on the gulf of Maine and other places around the world, understanding bird behavior, and even a bit of marine biology and geology. 

The food is amazing, honestly I was surprised by how great it was. They can accommodate to almost any diet, the food is locally sourced, and it’s all delicious. It’s definitely not your average camp food, this isn’t exactly an average camp though anyway. It’s wonderful. The staff there are very nice, helpful, and easy to talk to. There is an artist-in residence who you can talk to about art and maybe learn a thing or two from. I myself learned quite a bit about field sketching from the artist-in-residence. 

The thing we’ve all been waiting for… Birds! There was definitely no shortage of birds during that camp, I was able to add over 30 species to my life list just from the six days that I was there. There were warblers, crossbills, gulls, owls, puffins, razorbills, terns, gannets, hawks, vireos, herons, loons, and so much more! There was no lack of excitement during this camp either, because there was always something cool going on! Such as presentations, banding demonstrations, recording birdsongs, bird walks, boat trips, the bird-of-the-day, and just the incredible amount of diversity! The ecosystem was so healthy, there were all sorts of things there. 

I’d love to go to this camp again, it’s honestly the best camp that I have ever gone to. I would recommend it to anyone that’s looking to learn more about birds, it’s a hands-on learning experience and it’s quite an adventure. It really is a once in a lifetime experience.

If you’d like to learn more about this camp, or any of the other programs available, the link is here.

Happy Birding!