Barn Swallow Watercolor Scientific Illustration (with Time Lape Video)

hglucky13 (56) in art • 7 years ago (edited)

Meet My Neighbors!

The Barn Swallow got its name because it builds its nest almost exclusively on man-made structures. I can attest to this fact as there are families of them that annually build nests on our apartment buildings breezeway. There was only one nest this year, but I still enjoyed watching the chicks grow and eventually strike out on their own. The three babies from this year left last week and, as if this weekend, have stopped returning at night.

Animal mythology stories are fascinating to me. I think they show creative problem solving in early cultures. In the case of the Swallow, early people claimed that it stole fire from the gods to bring to the human race. This angered the gods, so they hurled a fireball at the Swallow, hitting its tail. This is the explanation for their forked tails. Pretty cool, right? Stories like that fill my head with illustration ideas.

For this painting, I used watercolor paper, graphite pencils, Copic brush pen and markers, and some generic watercolor/gouache paints. I’m generally pretty uncomfortable with these kinds of paints. During a scientific illustration assignment in college, however, I found they worked really well. Since I was going for that kind of style here, it was a natural decision.

Well, that’s it for now. Let me know what animals you want to see me draw or paint next and I may give it a shot. Thanks a bunch!

Until next time!

Disclaimer: Edits were made to increase readability. Please see comments for original text and all notated edits.

I love feedback, so if you have any questions, ideas, or requests, make sure to leave a comment below. And, if you need more fun stuff to shove into your eyeballs, hop over and check out my YouTube channel, Chimp Skipper, or my online portfolio.

#art #illustration #wildlife #birds #drawing #sketching #watercolor #ink #scientific #slothicorn #artexplosion #process #timelapse

art illustration drawing watercolor artexplosion

7 years ago by hglucky13 (56)

$38.31

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veryspider (68) · 7 years ago (edited)

am glad you're getting the attention your arts deserve, @hglucky13 !! :D :D :D

love that you put how they are occasional 'neighbour' and the mythology story behind their forked tail is also very lovely <3

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2 votes

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hglucky13 (56) · 7 years ago

Thank you!

I tried to take your advice and personalize it as much as possible. Unfortunately, I really rushed through writing it and wish I would have taken a bit more time to polish the post (I may still make some grammatical edits).

Either way, I'm super happy everyone seems to like it. It took me two weekends to make, so I was hoping it would get a bit more attention than my usual posts.

Thanks again!

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1 vote

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kristyglas (61) · 7 years ago

Dont worry about it! I edit my posts on average 5 times xD (Nothing huge ofcourse)
No one seems to mind, including curators :D

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hglucky13 (56) · 7 years ago

Lol, yeah, I make a lot of minor edits, but usually the post hasn’t gained such popularity first. I just didn’t want anyone thinking I completely changed the content after receiving a bunch of upvotes.

Thanks 😊

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steemitboard (66) · 7 years ago

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1 vote

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evacprocedure (51) · 7 years ago

ahh, cute! these birds are so lifelike and have such spirit to them. swallows are some of my favorite birds because of their symbology in old-school tattooing :) but in general, i'm such a sucker for birds, and for scientific illustrations, and for timelapses of people's processes, so this whole thing was so enjoyable.

please make more of these!

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1 vote

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hglucky13 (56) · 7 years ago (edited)

Thank you so much! I will definitely be doing more, it’s just slow going with a baby and a full time job. I will be a mom full time in a few weeks, though, so hopefully my productivity will increase at that time. Thank you again, I’m so happy you enjoyed the post!

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curie (76) · 7 years ago

Hi hglucky13,

Your post has been upvoted by the Curie community curation project and associated vote trail as exceptional content (human curated and reviewed). Keep creating awesome stuff! Have a great day :)

LEARN MORE: Join Curie on Discord chat and check the pinned notes (pushpin icon, upper right) for Curie Whitepaper, FAQ and most recent guidelines.

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1 vote

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hglucky13 (56) · 7 years ago

OMG!! Thank you so so so much! You guys are awesome! 😍

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geekgirl (72) · 7 years ago

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1 vote

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hglucky13 (56) · 7 years ago

Whoa! Thank you so much!! 😊

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c-squared (60) · 7 years ago

This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.

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1 vote

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hglucky13 (56) · 7 years ago

Weeeee! You guys are the best 😊

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artbynadine (52) · 7 years ago

Beautiful work! I love seeing other artist's sketchbook pages :)

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1 vote

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hglucky13 (56) · 7 years ago

Thanks! You have some pretty nice work yourself! Also, thank you so much for the resteem! 🤩

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artbynadine (52) · 7 years ago

Thank you too :) And you are very welcome!

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gabeecm (51) · 7 years ago

These birds are so cute, you have amazing skills ✨

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1 vote

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hglucky13 (56) · 7 years ago

Thank you! I certainly don’t mind sharing my living space with them.

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kristyglas (61) · 7 years ago

These are incredible!! Looks adorable and the details are fascinating.
I don't often check jeck videos, but this one was definitely worth it. I've been afraid to ink first and then use watercolor, but now I feel that I should try it out ^^

What is the white tool you use in the end called?

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1 vote

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hglucky13 (56) · 7 years ago (edited)

Thank you!

I do wish I had inked a bit less for the preliminary linework as the opaque paints dulled it and required re-inking. I say do whatever you are most comfortable with, and I have much more experience with ink than watercolors.

I believe it is a Gelly Roll white gel pen.

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kristyglas (61) · 7 years ago

Thank you. I'll check it out :D

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frejafri (63) · 7 years ago

Very beautiful, I'd like to see a squirrel next :D

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1 vote

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hglucky13 (56) · 7 years ago

Oooh, I should add squirrels to the “to draw” list. Thank you for your kind words!

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1 vote

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hglucky13 (56) · 7 years ago

Original Text and Notated Edits

The Barn Swallow got its name because ~~, of all the different swallows, the Barn Swallow~~ it builds its nest almost exclusively on man-made structures. I can attest to this fact as there are families of them that annually build nests on our apartment buildings breezeway ~~sprinklers.~~ There was only one nest this year, but I ~~always~~ still enjoyed watching the chicks grow up and eventually ~~leave the nest~~ strike out on their own. The three ~~chicks~~ babies from this year left last week and, as if this weekend, have stopped returning at night.

~~I always enjoy hearing interesting animal mythology stories,~~ Animal mythology stories are fascinating to me. ~~it shows~~ I think they show creative problem solving in early cultures. In the case of the Swallow, early people ~~thought~~ claimed that it stole fire from the gods to bring to the human race. This angered the gods, so they hurled a fireball at the Swallow, hitting its tail. This is the explanation for their forked tails. Pretty cool, right? Stories like that fill my head with illustration ideas.

For this ~~drawing~~ painting, I used watercolor paper, graphite pencils, Copic ~~multiliner~~ brush pen and markers, and some generic watercolor/gouache paints. I’m generally pretty uncomfortable with these kinds of paints. During a scientific illustration assignment in college, however, I found they worked really well. Since I was going for that kind of style here, it was a natural decision.

Well, that’s it for now. Let me know what animals you want to see me draw or paint next and I may give it a shot. Thanks a bunch!

Until next time!

$0.00

Barn Swallow Watercolor Scientific Illustration (with Time Lape Video)steemCreated with Sketch.

Meet My Neighbors!

Barn Swallow Watercolor Scientific Illustration (with Time Lape Video)