Project 1: Billiam the ice-cream-scooping-spoonbill

Process
The idea to create a story around Billiam the ice-cream-scooping-spoonbill came to me whilst drawing at the Natural History Museum. One of my favourite subjects to draw there was a stuffed, somewhat cheeky looking, spoonbill. Even at home I kept thinking about him and wanted to go back as soon as possible to draw him again.

Studying the spoonbill
As I usually just push out a character to get this difficult part over with, I decided to firstly study spoonbills. How do they move and behave themselves? What makes them tick? I laboriously studied YouTube videos and drew spoonbill after spoonbill.

Character design & creating artwork
But when I came to the point where I’d actually have to design my character I got stuck. I spent so much time looking at birds that I lost track of what I wanted to do and say with this story. In the end I had a few pieces of artwork I was - visually - truly happy with but didn’t mean anything.

Step 1: initial sketchbook attempts

Step 2: monoprinting spoonbills
After some solid advice from Martin I decided to play to my strengths: design and printmaking techniques.

Step 3: Using Photoshop to combine the monoprints, add colour and add digital drawing on top.

Conclusion
After the beginning of lockdown I decided to let this project rest and start a new project I did feel inspired by.