Thirteen birthday cards

This was perhaps the biggest part of Asha's birthday gift. I drew & watercolored thirteen cards, and wrote a memory of Asha in each.

This may not seem like a big deal, but the thing is, I can't draw birds. I have never really understood their shapes, or anatomy. I've never even been much of a bird person, or thought about them much, except for pigeons. So this took a lot of research and practice. I did at least one, sometimes 4 or 5, full color figure studies for each, to figure out how to make them look right.

Selecting the birds was also a big project, but lots of fun. I really wanted to play with their forms- the king fisher with the large head, the kiwi is nearly teardrop shaped, the asian blue quail might as well be a fancy jelly bean. Several were chosen for their colors, I loved the black and white birds, some greys, mixed in with the bright tropical ones. I picked the Japanese crane for it's dance, and the flamingo because it was the only bird I was excited about drawing in flight. Anyway, by the end, there was something very special about each!