oil pastel bird in the hand

painted on wood! I converted my reference photo to black and white, as well, and I think it did give me more permission to be weird with the color.

you might not know this, but I kept pet birds from the age of 9 until I was almost 30, first a peach-faced lovebird named Pickles (i was 9, and it was a genius name) and then a series of budgies, Glacier, Uther, and Percival.

as an adult, I know a lot more about the exotic pet bird industry, and I don’t know if owning birds is for me anymore, but if I did, I think I would go for pigeons: proper domesticated creatures that have had evolutionary time to be less stressed around people, and big enough to feel less terrifyingly vulnerable in the hand.

but there is something extremely magical about a bird choosing to sit on your hand, and as I was flipping through unsplash looking for something to paint, I started putting together a collection of reference of just that. so maybe? there will be more of these?


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