Claire - Art

Chicken Melee is the centerfold illustration for the sixth story in The Book of Bartholomew: Claire.  I had fun making this illustration of my neighbor's chickens.  Thank you Meghan.  I discovered that taking close-up pictures of chickens is near impossible because they are in constant motion. I had more chicken out of the picture than in.  But I was able to pull together this illustration before being all clucked-out.  Chickens are funny because they don't have much regard for each other: they walk over and into each other, poop anywhere, freak-out when other chickens are acting odd and will even peck each other to death.  When the situation is right, perhaps when they are shut into a small area and a disturbance happens, the you can have a chicken melee.  All feathers and cackling and crowing and feet scratching and pecking.  It can be quite a sight.

I used images of the chicken's heads for background to the text pages.  This is the first story that has a colored background behind the text.  I may do more of this in the future.  Here are some images of an initial sketch for a chicken illustration for Claire.  The final (above) is in ink and available for purchase as part of a Kickstarter Campaign to print The Book of Bartholomew.

Claire will be published on Friday, November 9, 2012 at bookofbartholomew.blogspot.com