ALICE DUKE @aliceduke - Tumblr Blog

Everybody's best bird friend, the humble robin

#nature illustration #bird art #digital painting #european robin

some grizzled veteran butterflies I saw in the garden last year and drew, the story of their survival is written in every tear and scar

#lepidoptera #butterflies #nature illustration #digital painting

Nest Builder - digital painting

love a good wood pigeon, and aren't they all good wood pigeons? This guy has been building a nest in my garden, I hope it works out for them

#bird art #nature illustration #digital painting #wood pigeon

golden hour ✨ - digital painting

unusual (to me) garden visitor, a song thrush in winter

#bird art #nature illustration #digital painting #song thrush

the terrible beast - portrait of a grey squirrel

I am lucky to live near some red squirrel holdout populations but I still never really see them, just these beefy invaders

#nature illustration #digital painting #grey squirrel

Hi! Your work is absolutely stunning. I was wondering if you have any tips for drawing birds (especially rendering... I keep getting lost in the Feather Rendering Sauce)

Thank you! As you can probably tell, I personally LOVE to get lost in the feather rendering sauce. But I can offer some suggestions on how I make my sick addiction work for me! Good paintings are all about contrast - whether it's colour, shape, light/dark value or detail. With a good camera you can get extremely detailed reference images, but applying that in a uniform way can leave your work feeling flat. It depends on your intent of course, but blurring edges, leaving some details out of focus, softening the parts you don't want your viewers to be interested in - these are all tools we can use to keep people's eyes moving and brains engaged.

An anon asked a while ago if I saw any mammals on my trail cameras, the answer is yes! Last winter and spring I was able to monitor a couple of badger sets. I love them???????

Grainy nocturnal recordings don't really lend themselves to being reference for detailed paintings but they are a good starting point for pen and ink.

#wildlife cam #badgers #nature illustration #ink drawing #meles meles

continuing my series of bird neighbour portraits - is there a more overlooked bird than the humble dunnock? the ultimate LBJ

#bird art #nature illustration #digital painting #dunnock

A tribute to a small patch of vegetation on a local beach that has driven everyone completely insane

#bird art #nature illustration #little egret #salt marshes

myosotis scorpioides

#forget me not #botanical illustration

I've been doing some extreme procrastination on making prints available, but finally, after many long personal battles and hardships, I did it. Maybe you want one?? Maybe you don't but you want some free clip studio brushes? I've got those too

I've opened a shop. Come take a look!

#trying to convince people to exchange resources for paper #bird art

Hey I love your paintings! I was wondering what your process is with references. Like do you just get one really good photo and work off that? Or is it inspired from more of a compilation?

Hello anon!

In some ways I feel like I started this project as a very long winded way of editing my very mediocre photos. Sometimes if the lighting and pose is really good I just work straight from one photograph but usually I'm working from a few taken either by me or my partner.

Here's an example of where the original ref definitely has a bird in it but it needs some extracting. The general pose is the same but I've had to look elsewhere to fill out the details that were in shadow or covered up.

A jackdaw started visiting my garden and I love her vibe so much, I had to paint her

#digital painting #clip studio paint #bird illustration #jackdaw #corvid art

There is a pair of blue tits nesting in the wall of my house, maybe 50cm from where I am sitting right now. I had to paint one of these ridiculous creatures whose children are screaming for more caterpillars as I type this

#bird art #nature illustration #blue tit #digital painting

🌙 the gliding moon ✨

a humbling painting (so much white, what a nightmare) that made me feel like I was beating my head against the wall for a long time. Got there in the end though!

This bird "project" I'm doing was intended to only be portraits of individual creatures I've seen and photographed. There is a barn owl I've caught glimpses of flying along the hedge line at dusk, but for some reason it's never paused for a photograph. I really wanted to paint one though, so I borrowed two taxidermied owls for a photoshoot. I didn't want them to go to waste so I made them available on my ko-fi for free*: https://ko-fi.com/s/2c94584ace

*tips appreciated but not required!

#nature illustration #barn owl #free art resources #bird art

Little Egret on Middle Eye

#illustration #bird art #nature illustration #little egret

Painting of the "roman" (built in 1847) boathouse in birkenhead park

#illustration #landscape

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