Another Stonechat, and BotSD

I decided to paint another Stonechat for Birds of the South Downs as my other painting is a bit too stylised. I used a mixture of references but here he is:

I used to get worried about the patchy gouache on this paper but in fact I rather like it as it shows the strokes. When I first painted birds my aim was to get them looking as if they had been created digitally with solid blocks of uniform colour, but there are so many Procreate users I am now more keen to establish their authenticity as a hand painted image.

Here are the cover and double page spread for the Birds of the South Downs:

It’s going to be a great book – I have really appreciated David’s expertise in both choosing the birds as well as his extensive knowledge of the species, especially in relation to the South Downs. I am learning so much by creating the logbooks: I have a good working knowledge of birds (trees; insects; wild flowers…) and am very familiar with a lot of the more common ones but the specifics are not something I have been particularly involved with as it has never been necessary. Discussing the finer points with experts is a privilege and I am looking forward to seeing this edition when it comes back from the printers.

I have almost run out of Birds of Arundel; Urban; Coast; and Farm so I will have a big order to place once this BotSD is proofread and finalised. Exciting stuff!

My illustrations are for sale, and fit a standard 30cm frame.