Barn Swallow Watercolor Scientific Illustration (with Time Lape Video)
Meet My Neighbors!
The Barn Swallow got its name because it builds its nest almost exclusively on man-made structures. I can attest to this fact as there are families of them that annually build nests on our apartment buildings breezeway. There was only one nest this year, but I still enjoyed watching the chicks grow and eventually strike out on their own. The three babies from this year left last week and, as if this weekend, have stopped returning at night.
Animal mythology stories are fascinating to me. I think they show creative problem solving in early cultures. In the case of the Swallow, early people claimed that it stole fire from the gods to bring to the human race. This angered the gods, so they hurled a fireball at the Swallow, hitting its tail. This is the explanation for their forked tails. Pretty cool, right? Stories like that fill my head with illustration ideas.
For this painting, I used watercolor paper, graphite pencils, Copic brush pen and markers, and some generic watercolor/gouache paints. I’m generally pretty uncomfortable with these kinds of paints. During a scientific illustration assignment in college, however, I found they worked really well. Since I was going for that kind of style here, it was a natural decision.
Well, that’s it for now. Let me know what animals you want to see me draw or paint next and I may give it a shot. Thanks a bunch!
Until next time!
Disclaimer: Edits were made to increase readability. Please see comments for original text and all notated edits.
I love feedback, so if you have any questions, ideas, or requests, make sure to leave a comment below. And, if you need more fun stuff to shove into your eyeballs, hop over and check out my YouTube channel, Chimp Skipper, or my online portfolio.
#art #illustration #wildlife #birds #drawing #sketching #watercolor #ink #scientific #slothicorn #artexplosion #process #timelapse
am glad you're getting the attention your arts deserve, @hglucky13 !! :D :D :D
love that you put how they are occasional 'neighbour' and the mythology story behind their forked tail is also very lovely <3
Thank you!
I tried to take your advice and personalize it as much as possible. Unfortunately, I really rushed through writing it and wish I would have taken a bit more time to polish the post (I may still make some grammatical edits).
Either way, I'm super happy everyone seems to like it. It took me two weekends to make, so I was hoping it would get a bit more attention than my usual posts.
Thanks again!
Dont worry about it! I edit my posts on average 5 times xD (Nothing huge ofcourse)
No one seems to mind, including curators :D
Lol, yeah, I make a lot of minor edits, but usually the post hasn’t gained such popularity first. I just didn’t want anyone thinking I completely changed the content after receiving a bunch of upvotes.
Thanks 😊
This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.
Weeeee! You guys are the best 😊
These are incredible!! Looks adorable and the details are fascinating.
I don't often check jeck videos, but this one was definitely worth it. I've been afraid to ink first and then use watercolor, but now I feel that I should try it out ^^
What is the white tool you use in the end called?
Thank you!
I do wish I had inked a bit less for the preliminary linework as the opaque paints dulled it and required re-inking. I say do whatever you are most comfortable with, and I have much more experience with ink than watercolors.
I believe it is a Gelly Roll white gel pen.
Thank you. I'll check it out :D
Very beautiful, I'd like to see a squirrel next :D
Oooh, I should add squirrels to the “to draw” list. Thank you for your kind words!
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Whoa! Thank you so much!! 😊
ahh, cute! these birds are so lifelike and have such spirit to them. swallows are some of my favorite birds because of their symbology in old-school tattooing :) but in general, i'm such a sucker for birds, and for scientific illustrations, and for timelapses of people's processes, so this whole thing was so enjoyable.
please make more of these!
Thank you so much! I will definitely be doing more, it’s just slow going with a baby and a full time job. I will be a mom full time in a few weeks, though, so hopefully my productivity will increase at that time. Thank you again, I’m so happy you enjoyed the post!
Original Text and Notated Edits
Hi hglucky13,
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OMG!! Thank you so so so much! You guys are awesome! 😍
These birds are so cute, you have amazing skills ✨
Thank you! I certainly don’t mind sharing my living space with them.