Birds in July

I have spent the last couple of days updating my website. Not enough of my bird drawings were up, plus I wanted to add a page for the zine I'm doing at work. Actually, I'm doing 98% at home and maybe 2% at work. We had this idea that kids could bring the zine back in the store with activities completed to earn stamps for a "passport" and eventually get a prize, but no one has brought one back in. 

Admittedly at first I was doing very rushed art, but realized this could be a showcase for me as well as something for kids.

It's been interesting trying to come up with clever activities for kids. Sometimes I'm inspired with good ideas, sometimes I'm left staring at the page. 

​The maze was a cute idea--help the mama wren fly through the branches to her nestlings in the box at the bottom. 

I had never made a connect-the-dots before, which was another fun challenge. After a couple of false starts as well as studying other connect-the-dots, I figured out the trick to making a good one of these.
​ 

Because the first main page of the zine is educational (all of it is, really), I realized I also needed to do some more scientific looking drawings, like this zygodactyl foot of a woodpecker.