Northern Cardinal: Detail

That's one, seed-eating, finchy beak.

Northern Cardinal: In Color

Northern Cardinal: Graphite

I think my motto for the year will be "imperfect, but done" because sometimes that's as good as a person can get.

Northern Cardinal: Line Drawing

Well, here's Mr. Northern Cardinal in all his glory.


Hopefully as this project gets underway I'll get organized enough to make a pen & ink version of these line drawings... but we're going to start slowly so as not to freak out the blogger...

Northern Cardinal: Getting to Know You

Man, I feel like I haven't been to the gym in a while. Doodling is like that; if you don't do it for a little while you get rusty. And since I've been off from school, working and traveling I haven't doodled in a couple of weeks. Ouch.

Doing "Getting to Know You" sketches is a good way to get back into it. No pressure to do something beautiful, just trying to get an idea of how things work.

For the cardinal, I messed around in the sketchbook until I started seeing the shape of the bird. Cardinals, with their crests, make a distinctive teardrop shape if you catch them at the right angle.


The thing to remember about cardinals, or any crested birds for that matter, is that the crest will obscure the actual shape of the head (which is, I suppose, the point of having a crest). I'm not sure I'm getting it just yet, but it's something to be aware of.


Tomorrow: a line drawing.

Northern Cardinal: Research

Photo by Ken Thomas, via Wikipedia Commons

The Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) is a medium-sized songbird found throughout the Eastern and Southwestern US and (oddly enough) in some places on the islands of Hawaii and Oahu (successful introduction). Both male and female have a distinctive crest and orange beak. The male is red; female is brown with red on her crest and wing and tail.

Cardinals live year-round in their range, but will move to avoid extreme temperatures or food shortages. They live in woodlands, swamps and suburbs. As with other feeder birds, the Cardinal is subject to predation by backyard hawks.

The Cardinal can be extremely territorial; if another bird enters a place the Cardinal thinks is his, the bird will be chastised and likely chased away. It is, apparently, not unusual for male Cardinals to attack their own reflections, at least during breeding season. Some of them have been observed doing this for hours at a time.

Cardinals have a distinctive song, sung by both males and females, which they use to attract a mate, in courtship and to lay claim to territory. Since songs are learned, there are regional variations.

The bird's diet consists primarily of seeds (look at the design of that beak!), but as with most birds, it also eats bugs and fruit.

Places to look for information about the Northern Cardinal:

1. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology site, All About Birds.


2. The Wikipedia article on the Northern Cardinal.

2011: Time for a New Blog Project

When we were in DC I picked up a book, 365: A Daily Creativity Journal. I've been wanting to do a 365-day project for the last couple of years, but a) a whole year is a long time and b) I struggle with that kind of organization.

In other words, I'm starting something that I may be spectacularly ill-equipped to follow through on... sigh. We'll see how far this goes.

In his book, author Noah Scalin (of Skull-a-Day fame) says "The key to a successful daily project is deciding on a subject or medium that you will enjoy exploring for a year (pg. 7)."

I've been looking at birds here for a while and I'm still fascinated by them, so that seems like a good subject.

And I'm in a natural science illustration program this year, so why not combine the two to create a body of work?

Here's the project, as I see it right now:

Do 52 bird studies this year, taking a week to do each study.

I know what you're thinking -- that doesn't sound much like a 365-day project now, does it? Bear with me for a moment.

Last term in the NatSci program, we had a process and I'll be basing the "daily" part of the project on that process. If all goes according to plan, it will look something like this:

• Saturday: research


• Sunday: "getting to know you" sketches - loose, mostly gesture, for overall shape, or to study the interesting bits


• Monday: line drawing


• Tuesday: tonal drawing in graphite


• Wednesday: color, either colored pencil or watercolor


• Thursday: detail drawing - here's where you're likely to see lots of beaks, feet and eyes


• Friday: put it all together digitally

That's it, for the moment. Since it's my project, I reserve the right to change the rules whenever I want. If I can keep it going for any length of time it should be a good experience, and maybe I'll even make a few things I like!

My first bird: the Northern Cardinal. I saw my first live one in DC, so it will be a new bird (for me) to start a new project in the new year.

Happy New Year!