'Birds of a feather, flock together'

So over the summer, I had to draft a self-initiated brief as my first personal project of my third year at university. From previous briefs, I knew I wanted to draw from my own photographs wherever I could, so I decided to base my project on photographs I already had of birds of prey. I started the project quite realistically, to be honest I just wanted to prove that I could still draw, with changing styles over the past couple of years I just wanted to strip it all back to the basics. Here's one of the illustrations;

The project swiftly moved on from this process, as I wanted to play around with pattern and intricate detail within the form of a bird. I enjoyed this way of working so much that I based the entire project around it and created two final pieces, one a hand made canvas, with the image screen-printed onto calico, and the other was individual screen-prints on calico, stitched together (patchwork quilt style). 

This illustration in particular was to represent 'birds of a feather, flock together'. Each bird is a different breed of the falcon family and the branch is to represent the connection between them. 

I also produced illustrations of birds in flight. The final outcome of these illustrations was created to illustrate this poem; 

Birds In Flight

By Anishinaabekwe

The bird flew, in flight,

Flew, flying, the birds cross paths,

In flight, wings touching,

Hearts connect, but must fly away.

Shadows cast, a glimpse of the soul,

Intertwined, a moment,

Snapshot, in a picture,

Connection to a soul,

Soil signifies connection,

But longing, reaching, broken for home.