extinct birds

another project on the go, is my series on extinct birds. some of the birds, almost nothing is known and most of my drawings are based on plates made from birds collected and described by naturalist explorers in the 1800s. in some cases I was able to look at specimens collected and now in museums. if you're able, the Natural History Museum in Paris has a hall filled with specimens of the worlds extinct animals, and is well worth a visit.
I think it's nice to remember the birds we lost, the world was a very different place once upon a time, and not so long ago really.

there are a few different products I'm working on in this series, a few still in progress, but I have finished two new pins to add to my extinct bird pin collection, the moho apicalis, formerly of Hawaii and the passenger pigeon of North America. for the whole collection of my extinct bird pins, check my Etsy shop here. check back over the next month or so as I hope to have some of the new products ready soon.

so I know it's been ages since my last post, I thought it was about time I showed some of the new things I've been working on. among other things, I'm working on a series at the moment based on australian stories and places. I started off wanting to do illustrations for each state, featuring each state's floral emblem, animal, and bird, but this wasn't enough imagery, and not really terribly interesting, so I started thinking of places with stories that went with them.


The first theme I went with was the Snowy River, a river flowing through the east of Australia, and the setting for one of Australia's most famous poems, The Man From Snowy River. This design features the plants and animals native to the region, along with a wild horse, or brumby, the subject of the poem.


the second design, I've called An Exact Observer, and is based on the travels of William Dampier, one of the first Englishmen to set foot in Australia. While he was not a naturalist or botanist (in fact he was for some of his career a pirate) he had the curiosity to collect and describe the plants and animals he encountered, and his become the first published drawings of Australian plants and animals.

the images in this print depict the flora and fauna he described and collected as he traveled along the coast of Western Australia.

lastly I have the Swan River Colony, the name given to the first English settlement in what is today Western Australia. As my home state, I have some fondness. The animals and plants here include the black swan, numbat, banksia, kangaroo paw and quokka among others.

I like working in groups of six, so I have a few more designs planned, two somewhat related to poor navigation and another an ode to Australia's most well known botanist.

You can find the currently available designs, some printed fabrics and screen prints, here in my Etsy shop.