A Calendarful of Crows

For my 2010 calendar I chose the theme of crows.

Why crows?

Well the first spark was a conversation I had with someone who didn't like crows, and didn't really see how anyone could.

I think crows are beautiful, and I think their beauty is especially charming because it's so easily overlooked it is almost secret. The romantics in us respond to this - that's why there are so many stories in which ostensibly plain heroines are revealed as belles. The next time you see a black crow, sidle up to it and take a long look at its plumage. To the lazy eye, it is a simple black, but to you, it flickers with the colours of the Aurora Borealis. Blue, petrol green, purple and sometimes a dark, members-only-password-at-door-jazz-bar red.

I found a strange book in the Ilac Library in Dublin, which made many outlandish but very probably true claims about corvids. As a result I drew a number of characters, all of whom shared some trait with a member of the crow family or referred to them in some way.

 

This Crow Man is campaigning for an end to the slanderous terms 'a murder of crows' and 'an unkindness of ravens'.

 

This drawing referenced the way that ravens will add to their nest each year, sometimes resulting in giant twiggy tree-mansions.

 

This crow-character is engaged in the strange habit of anting.

 

This one is demonstrating the crow's talent for problem-solving.

 

I actually can't remember what this one was - I think it's something to do with the way crows fly about at dusk.

 

 

This was in reference to the fine plumage of the crow family.

 

Ravens flirt by hopping up and down.

 

The thieving habit of jays.

 

A mysterious hooded crow.

 

 

This referred to a record of an American crow who would search for food while riding on the back of a pig.

 

 

 

The magpie love of glimmering, sparkling things.

 

 

Some sketches.