173 Birds

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  Chlidonias

• 27 Dec 2010

Acrylics on canvas. April to May 1997. 24X36 inches.

This looks much better in real life because its quite a nice size. Its not completely flat so it didnt photograph as well as I had hoped (eg, some bits are out of focus and the top right is much darker than it should be)

 

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  KCZooFan

• 27 Dec 2010

This is amazing. I am speechless. All the birds look incredibly realistic. Nice work!
(I can tell you like parrots )

 

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  devilfish

• 27 Dec 2010

Wow, this is incredible - astounding detail, and such accurate depictions. I love the 'taxonomic huddles'

 

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  Chlidonias

• 28 Dec 2010

thank you kind sirs, much appreciated

 

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  Zooplantman

• 28 Dec 2010

This is A LOT OF FUN as well as beautiful!
The way they are grouped of course makes perfect sense both artistically and taxonomically. Even more fun.
Thanks for sharing it. I'm really enjoying spotting the birds...sort of like old friends.

 

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  Chlidonias

• 28 Dec 2010

The actual title of this painting is "173 birds and one monkey" which I did just to drive people crazy trying to find the non-existent monkey. But I thought it would be mean calling it that on here

 

J

• J

  Jabiru96

• 28 Dec 2010

Great painting!

Did you have to do it in stages such as draw some of the bigger birds first or did you just start in the corner and continue to the other corner?

 

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  Chlidonias

• 29 Dec 2010

as I recall I started in the bottom two corners and just worked it out along the bottom and then upwards in an onward spreading fashion. The trickiest bit was doing the birds at the top so that they appeared within the frame without their heads being cut off (the photo actually misses off the very top edge). The birds aren't of course to scale with each other.

 

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  Sun Wukong

• 29 Dec 2010

Great pic, but hey: no Kagu?

 

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  Chlidonias

• 30 Dec 2010

no kiwi either lol