The first couple of illustrations (on the left) were a bit patchy, so I re-did them in a simpler style and feel much happier with how they turned out. On the top is a Po’o-uli and on the right is a New Calendonian Lorikeet.

Building up shapes gradually in layers with hand carved stamps

This one has been percolating in the back of my mind for a while now. I read a story in the Guardian over a year ago about a report published by Birdlife International that identified species that were at risk. As part of this report was the news that eight birds have already been declared extinct this century. I’ve done some research into these eight birds and decided I would like to illustrate them as a record of what has been lost. My initial idea was to use collage, but I was distracted back to my favourite medium of rubber stamps. My first attempts were a bit patchy, but then I started to get into my stride using a new technique of building up semi-transparent layers of colour, and wiping the stamps to set a softer, more painterly style. This is very much work in progress, but I’ve enjoyed the process of closely examining the birds to create the illustrations and to work in a slightly different way with stamps.