particularly happy to be hopping around in our bac
The Robin is a welcome harbinger of Spring. And after a weekend project of digging, the Robins were particularly happy to be hopping around in our backyard. Which gave me cause to think, what are Robins all about? After some doodling around I came up with the Robin's guide to Livin,' which is as follows: 1. Admire Beauty (in this case, other Robins) 2. Greet Every Day with Song (Robins are among the first birds that sing at dawn) 3. Eat Well (a la: grubs, worms and caterpillars) 4. Keep it Together (in this case with a fine, muddy glue) 5. Draw from many sources (feathers, sticks, grass, moss, whatever you can find) 6. Recycle (bits of paper, ribbon, and string are fabulous additions to a nest) 7. Love the Color blue (I mean, seriously, why do you think TIffany's picked Robin's egg blue for their seminal boxes??) 8. Stay Organized (ok, ok, you caught me, Robin's don't keep lists, but there is a chance one of your lost grocery lists made it into a nest!) and finally, 9. Fly Gracefully (as only a Robin can do). I hand drew each illustration and its frame, live-traced it into illustrator, made a watercolor wash for the background, and used an adobe illustrator 'watercolor' brush for the coloring within the illustrations. It's sort of funny that the colors turned out so patriotic..it wasn't conscious, but I guess this IS the American Robin, after all! :)