I’m so excited to share this new illustration piece I finished in March!

I did some sketching first in my sketchbook to brainstorm ideas and test out different scene compositions and birds.

Then I illustrated the marsh background on a large piece of Arches hot press watercolor paper with watercolor and colored pencils.

I illustrated the birds on a separate sheet and cut them out.

Voila, my first collage illustration!

I started with the idea of illustrating birds since I haven’t focused on that in a while, which led to researching birds that live in a marsh wetlands habitat. I didn’t want to illustrate the birds and then have to do a background around them which led me to the idea of this collage. It turned out even better than my imagination!

I’m on a roll this year completing a bigger illustration project like this (outside of my sketchbook) each month, the Stargazing animals series in January, the Woodlands Map in February, and this Marsh Wetlands in March. Stay tuned for what’s to come in April!