Old Bird

"Old Bird" - brush & ink, and pen & ink on paper

This afternoon I felt compelled to bring to life a sketch that lay in wait in my art journal. This Old Bird is very much inspired by an even older IMT prompt from around July - "Owl". I actually contributed a photograph of an owl ring for IMT that week, and this quick sketch never saw the light of day again. Until this afternoon that is.

I'm thinking of starting a series on animal masks like this, where the person sort of adapts a characteristic of that animal. This woman with the owl mask is raising her shoulders inwards as if about to squawk or thrust her head and neck out. She's an old and very irritable bird, indeed.

I've never found much inspiration in animals or even been able to draw creatures, as I said when I made my giraffe linocut prints for my mum. But sometimes it's how you actually appropriate a motif to suit your own cause that sets you off.