Hey there -- I made a blackbird with leaves. The bird was drawn after the provided image and painted with watercolor, photographed, and loaded into Photoshop to be manipulated. The lines covering the bird are from a sketchbook drawing that was also photographed and loaded into PS. Leaves and sky courtesy of you guys.

This image was a challenge. Typically I shy away from fussing with Photoshop or other imaging software, I like to make my work by hand - holding the pencil and brush, feeling the paint flow and flood a page. I take real pleasure in that, it's a rush. But the nature of the challenge called for some computer magic, so I figured I might as well marry the two. Also thought working with Photoshop and by hand complimented the story told on the program, that of Ms. Taylor favoring the computer and Mr. Uelsmann being a darkroom guy.

This image is also being used for my current illustration project, 365 Critters. It's the image for day 219 and will be emailed to a participant in Buenaventura, Colombia.

Thanks -- really had a lot of fun with this one.

Jeff