Angry Bird

No relation to the ones from the popular iTunes game. This is a seagull from Camden, Maine.

It's sort of an illustration, I suppose. I used watercolor and ink. I tried to be really washy with the paint. I didn't want a really rendered look, but I still wanted it to look like a seagull. I'm also experimenting with using spatter in my work. Not sure if it really works here or not. I'm not displeased with this piece, though. I don't think it's my best, but if it had not been misting while I was there (and of course if the seagull had sat still long enough), this is how I would have wanted to paint him.

 I took a picture of a seagull at the harbor in Camden when my friends and I were hanging around the dock. He didn't even flinch when I got close to him. He posed for a few pictures, then majestically flew away to go sit by the nearby waterfall. 

Seagulls just look angry all the time. They are sort of mean birds, I guess. They steal each others food and sometimes people's food. I think one of the dinner table conversations we had on the trip was about seagulls and how evil they were. But you never know, this little guy may have been happy as a clam and here we all are judging him, just because he looks like he's got a furrowed brow. 

I suppose, in a way, I can relate to a seagull. Sometimes, when I'm just sitting there, people will say "What's wrong? Why so sad". That's my neutral face. I guess my neutral face reads as "upset", much like a seagull.