Sketch of the Week: Little Bird

With the temperatures getting hot in Roswell, I've been taking my weekend walks early in the morning, when it's still reasonably cool. On my way out one Saturday, I encountered a dead bird on the sidewalk, a female western tanager to be more precise. I didn't have my sketching materials on me at the time, but I told myself I'd draw it if it were still there when I got back. Sure enough, the bird hadn't been moved, so I went back to my house, grabbed my sketching supplies, and returned to the sidewalk to make this drawing:

This isn't the first time I've drawn a dead bird, but what struck me about this one was its bright coloring, which was so wonderfully juxtaposed with the gritty, gray surface of the concrete sidewalk. The orange plumage around the head was particularly brilliant; this sketch doesn't do it justice. Add to that the delicacy of the feathers themselves, and I couldn't help but be arrested by this exquisitely beautiful, yet thoroughly deceased, creature. It was both a little jewel and an emphatic reminder of one's mortality.