Blog
Latest posts
Ausbirdtober – Days 9 to 14
Responses to the prompts: ‘A bit scary’, ‘Adorable’ and others….
Ausbirdtober – the first 8 days!
Here's the first 8 days of my responses to the Ausbirdtober prompts. Ausbirdtober is a fun way to celebrate Australia's birds. On each day, start with the prompt (see list below), and think of an Australian bird. Then either create a drawing, painting or print; Or...
Want to draw better? Draw with ink!
It can be scary to draw with ink, because you can’t rub it out. Paradoxically, that’s exactly why it can make you better at drawing.
Five ways to draw a duck
In the lead up to Ausbirdtober, here’s a few different ways to draw. It’s good to try a range of approaches – they stretch you in different ways, and teach you new ways of seeing and doing.
Countdown to Ausbirdtober
Ausbirdtober is about taking a few moments each day to reflect on an Australian bird, and to respond by creating an image and/or some words.
But you don’t need to do it each day if that’s too much. Please dip in and out of the prompts if you like!
I’ll be posting more tips & examples as we count down to October 1st.
No AI allowed!
The first ever Paperbark Writer Calendar
For the first time I’ve taken the leap and created a calendar!
Brighten up a nature-lover’s year with drawings that are both recognizable to species, and also make you smile.
The Ausbirdtober challenge
Please join me this October for a fun way to celebrate Australia’s birds. And you don’t *have* to draw! You can also take part by writing a few lines about a bird each day…
The simple joy of haiku
Do you want to try nature journaling but don’t know where to start?
Not many spare moments in your day?
Here’s a simple, brief, but beautiful way to respond to nature: a Haiku.
New Australian Magpie tea towels, and two new greeting cards
Wise (but silly) magpies, plus the Bettong of Happiness.
Advice from an Australian Magpie
Australian magpies are fiercely loyal, great singers, breed co-operatively and love to be silly. Here’s some advice from one of Australia’s favorite birds.
A beak shaped by sheoaks?
Glossy Black-cockatoos feed almost exclusively on the seeds of sheoak trees (Allocasuarina and Casuarina spp.). Each day they spend many hours extracting seeds from woody sheoak cones – that much I knew. What I didn’t know, until I looked closely at the skull and beak of a Glossy Black-cockatoo, is exactly how their beak is beautifully shaped for the task of extracting a sheoak seed and eating it.
The Glossy Black-cockatoo is also threatened with extinction – and its highly specialized beak is part of the reason why.
A tale of two cocky beaks
At this time of year, I see two different types of large parrots everyday. The Yellow-tailed Black-cockatoo and the Sulphur-crested Cockatoo. One of them eagerly gobbles down the bird seed offered by some of my neighbours. The other never visits the feeding trays. Why should this be?
Tales of Science
A beak shaped by sheoaks?
Glossy Black-cockatoos feed almost exclusively on the seeds of sheoak trees (Allocasuarina and Casuarina spp.). Each day they spend many hours extracting seeds from woody sheoak cones – that much I knew. What I didn’t know, until I looked closely at the skull and beak of a Glossy Black-cockatoo, is exactly how their beak is beautifully shaped for the task of extracting a sheoak seed and eating it.
The Glossy Black-cockatoo is also threatened with extinction – and its highly specialized beak is part of the reason why.
A tale of two cocky beaks
At this time of year, I see two different types of large parrots everyday. The Yellow-tailed Black-cockatoo and the Sulphur-crested Cockatoo. One of them eagerly gobbles down the bird seed offered by some of my neighbours. The other never visits the feeding trays. Why should this be?
The Amazing Parrot Beak
The evolution of the parrot beak was a major innovation in the bird world. And it’s likely that it occurred in the place we now call Australia.
Why do kangaroos hop?
Hopping is a very energy-efficient way to move for kangaroos, but no other medium-large sized mammal hops. Why?
Why do bird knees bend backwards?
Forget about bees’ knees, what about bird knees?
Bird leg anatomy is often misunderstood, but helpful to know, especially for artists.
Tree hollows are animal homes #4 – Wheatbelt Woodlands of Western Australia
Yay – the next ‘Tree hollows are animal homes’ design is here! Thanks to the Moore Catchment Council, Eucalypt Australia and Iluka, I can now offer you a free poster and colour-ins all about the hollow-dwelling fauna of the Western Australian Wheatbelt Woodlands. Read more to find the download links….
Nature journaling
Ausbirdtober – the first 8 days!
Here's the first 8 days of my responses to the Ausbirdtober prompts. Ausbirdtober is a fun way to celebrate Australia's birds. On each day, start with the prompt (see list below), and think of an Australian bird. Then either create a drawing, painting or print; Or...
Want to draw better? Draw with ink!
It can be scary to draw with ink, because you can’t rub it out. Paradoxically, that’s exactly why it can make you better at drawing.
Five ways to draw a duck
In the lead up to Ausbirdtober, here’s a few different ways to draw. It’s good to try a range of approaches – they stretch you in different ways, and teach you new ways of seeing and doing.
The Ausbirdtober challenge
Please join me this October for a fun way to celebrate Australia’s birds. And you don’t *have* to draw! You can also take part by writing a few lines about a bird each day…
The simple joy of haiku
Do you want to try nature journaling but don’t know where to start?
Not many spare moments in your day?
Here’s a simple, brief, but beautiful way to respond to nature: a Haiku.
A tale of two cocky beaks
At this time of year, I see two different types of large parrots everyday. The Yellow-tailed Black-cockatoo and the Sulphur-crested Cockatoo. One of them eagerly gobbles down the bird seed offered by some of my neighbours. The other never visits the feeding trays. Why should this be?
Forest portraits
The scribbly gum woodland at Freshwater
Freshwater National Park smells burnt, but it looks lush green. I can hear the sleepy chortles of lorikeets, somewhere up in the bloodwoods. It’s late afternoon, on a hot January day. Maybe they’ve had too much sun, or too much nectar, or both. Scribbly gums rise like...
Nothofagus: a portrait of the Antarctic beech forest
Nothofagus, the southern beech, has always held a certain mystique for me. As a child I was an avid reader, and lived in an imaginary world. I was always searching for the forests of Middle Earth, Narnia and Sherwood. Stands of Nothofagus came much closer to this...
Enter the jungle – a portrait of wet rainforest
I explored my first rainforests when I was 14 years old and the experience probably changed my life. On a cold autumn morning at Binna Burra, I awaited the dawn bird walk, an enormous pair of very unsophisticated binoculars slung around my neck. Dingoes were howling...
Portrait of an endangered scribbly gum woodland
Drive from Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast, between the Glasshouse Mountains and Bribie Island, and you will pass through vast areas of exotic pine plantations. But it wasn't always this way. Once there were miles of scribbly gum woodlands with a diverse heathy...
Sunlight and shadows – a dry sclerophyll forest portrait
The most widespread and abundant forest type in Australia is probably dry sclerophyll forest - the tallest trees are eucalypts and their relatives (Corymbia, Angophora, Lophostemon), and below them are sparse shrubs, heath and/or grasses and herbs. This forest...
Blackbutt beasties, and forest portrait number two
Many beautiful beasties live in wet sclerophyll forest, including those that dwell or nest in the hollows of venerable old trees. Gliding possums that eat leaves, blossoms or trees sap; owls, tree-creepers and parrots; bats, snakes and antechinuses¹. As I started...
How to draw a forest (Part 2) – my first forest portrait
When it comes to doing art I’m largely self taught, so I always hesitate to call myself an artist. But I do like a challenge. Trying to draw forest portraits would require me to brush up on everything I had ever learnt about colour and tone and whatever else goes into...
How to draw a forest (Part 1) – or seeing the wood for the trees
Look for depictions of forests in art and you won’t find many. Sure, there are plenty of landscapes with trees. But look closer and you’ll notice there are only a few trees, probably to one side of the picture, and the rest is open country. Or it is a parkland, some...
Cartoons
Ausbirdtober – Days 9 to 14
Responses to the prompts: ‘A bit scary’, ‘Adorable’ and others….
Ausbirdtober – the first 8 days!
Here's the first 8 days of my responses to the Ausbirdtober prompts. Ausbirdtober is a fun way to celebrate Australia's birds. On each day, start with the prompt (see list below), and think of an Australian bird. Then either create a drawing, painting or print; Or...
Countdown to Ausbirdtober
Ausbirdtober is about taking a few moments each day to reflect on an Australian bird, and to respond by creating an image and/or some words.
But you don’t need to do it each day if that’s too much. Please dip in and out of the prompts if you like!
I’ll be posting more tips & examples as we count down to October 1st.
No AI allowed!
The first ever Paperbark Writer Calendar
For the first time I’ve taken the leap and created a calendar!
Brighten up a nature-lover’s year with drawings that are both recognizable to species, and also make you smile.
Letter from Beechmont, and beyond
A few recent nature journal pages, from Beechmont and beyond. Enjoy!
The Shining Bronze-cuckoo – a horror story?
For weeks I’ve been hearing the calls of our resident Brown Thornbills, mixed in with the eerie downward trills of the Shining Bronze-cuckoo.
They have an ecological partnership, of sorts. It may make you feel squeamish… But is it a horror story?
New designs: Magpie Studies and Australian Kin
Two new designs have just been added to my Redbubble store: ‘Magpie studies’ and ‘Australian kin’.
Gorgeous, fun & educational: New sticker sheets
Add some nature bling to your things, and brighten up your day 🙂
Wildlife illustration
Ausbirdtober – Days 9 to 14
Responses to the prompts: ‘A bit scary’, ‘Adorable’ and others….
Ausbirdtober – the first 8 days!
Here's the first 8 days of my responses to the Ausbirdtober prompts. Ausbirdtober is a fun way to celebrate Australia's birds. On each day, start with the prompt (see list below), and think of an Australian bird. Then either create a drawing, painting or print; Or...
Five ways to draw a duck
In the lead up to Ausbirdtober, here’s a few different ways to draw. It’s good to try a range of approaches – they stretch you in different ways, and teach you new ways of seeing and doing.
Countdown to Ausbirdtober
Ausbirdtober is about taking a few moments each day to reflect on an Australian bird, and to respond by creating an image and/or some words.
But you don’t need to do it each day if that’s too much. Please dip in and out of the prompts if you like!
I’ll be posting more tips & examples as we count down to October 1st.
No AI allowed!
The first ever Paperbark Writer Calendar
For the first time I’ve taken the leap and created a calendar!
Brighten up a nature-lover’s year with drawings that are both recognizable to species, and also make you smile.
New Australian Magpie tea towels, and two new greeting cards
Wise (but silly) magpies, plus the Bettong of Happiness.