I created this illustration following my trip to Greece a year ago. I was sitting at a coffee shop having my breakfast when a cute little sparrow flew over and sat on the edge of my water-glass.
I sat back and let it relax there, till it proceeded to jump onto my breakfast plate and tuck into my cooked breakfast.
Although I had to leave the rest of my food behind after that, I had managed to capture a delightful photo which I later turned into a line illustration that captured that moment beautifully.
The Art Aspect
Looking at the creation of this line illustration.
When I set out to draw this bird, I had to keep in mind that the bird is light and frail. This meant that I needed to be careful not to overwork the textures in its features even though it is relatively dark overall.
To accomplish this, I was careful not to allow the shaded lines on the wings to converge more than was absolutely necessary.
The places that I had to keep in mind here were the wings that had more density in colour than the breast.
Even though the head has a darkness to it too, I decided to hold back on the shading there so that I didn’t end up overworking the sketch.
The water glass in this picture helps reinforce the fragility and lightness of the little sparrow. Keeping the bird in proportion played an important part of making sure it was well-balanced on the edge of the glass.