Saturday, August 28, 2021

Birds of Paradise in Sketches and Drawings

Birds of Paradise are beautiful animals. Before the covid pandemic, I often guided visitors on trips across West Papua to watch them. We spent between 3 and 21 days to watch as many of them in the forest both in lowland, lower montane and higher montane forests. Some of the 42 species that I have seen in West Papua include Glossy-mantled Manucode, Lesser Birds of Paradise, King Bird of Paradise, Magnificent Riflebird, Magnificent Bird of Paradise, Western Parotia, Black Sicklebill, Long-tailed Paradigala, Vogelkop Superbird of Paradise, Red Bird of Paradise, and Wilson's Bird of Paradise. There was a bird whose physical appearance was similar to Ribbon-tailed Bird of Paradise that I saw in Tambrauw mountains but I was not sure which species it was because I did not take pictures of it. I was soaking myself in a river when I saw it flying above me over the river. I saw Wallace Standard Wing in Halmahera. 

Digital art of Bird of Paradise created by Charles Roring
Vector illustration of Lesser Birds of Paradise

drawing of cendrawasih kuning kecil
A colored pencil drawing of a male Lesser Birds of Paradise

Because my hobby is drawing, I like to make sketches, drawings and watercolour paintings of these beautiful birds. Although I don't draw birds very often now, I still have got some photos of the artworks in my folder. 

paradise bird art in watercolor painting
Male and Female Lesser Birds of Paradise in watercolour
The availability of digital drawing application such as Autodesk Sketchbook has enabled artist to create illustration directly from the surface of their cell phone and tablets using a stylus. The artwork can then be offered to customers as printed illustrations on a lot of products such as t-shirt, mugs, skirt, cell phone case, pillow, shower curtain, and a lot more. I used to create vector illustrations using Macromedia Freehand and Inkscape. Later, I decided to use a bitmap based drawing app - the Autodesk Sketchbook. Drawing with stylus is more intuitive than with a mouse. 
illustration of Cendrawasih Merah created using Autodesk Sketchbook
Digital drawing of a Male Red Bird of Paradise
However, I still like creating sketches and drawing of animals, flowers, boats, fish and human figures manually using pencil on paper. I have got more freedom when I hold a graphite pencil. 
Most of the artworks are now available to anyone who is interested in having it as printed illustration on various goods such as t-shirts, mugs, and even bed cover on the following online shop: Birds of Paradise and Wildlife Art. Your purchase of products in this shop greatly helps me maintain this blog. This is written by Charles Roring. 

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Merchandise

Please, support this blog by buying art drawings and illustrations of wild animals and plants in the form of prints on various products as follows:

Watercolour Sketch of Bird

Watercolour Sketch of Bird
Fruit Dove from Tropical Rainforest

Vector Art Drawing in Inkscape

Vector Art Drawing in Inkscape
Swimming with Whaleshark

Vector art illustration in Inkscape

Vector art illustration in Inkscape
Baby leatherback turtle was reaching for the sea

Drawing of Paradise Bird

Drawing of Paradise Bird
Lesser Birds of Paradise art print on classic T-shirt

Digital Drawing in Autodesk Sketchbook

Digital Drawing in Autodesk Sketchbook
A Couple of Red Bird of Paradise