This year I decided to join illustrators from around the world in an inktober-type challenge. Since I love birds so much, it only seemed natural that I join a bird-themed inktober, and that's Birdtober. There was more than one Birdtober going on, one hosted by mural artist & painter Andrea Holmes, the other one by bird nerd and illustrator Kayla Fisk. I chose the latter's prompt list, since it was less specific and more open-ended.

I mostly did one bird per day, with few exceptions when I did two. I worked on bad paper on purpose. It's 60gsm slightly off-white paper, A4. I'll be honest with you: I usually start my sketchbooks really nice, but then I either abandon them or mess them up. I had yet to own a sketchbook that I work consistently on, and finish it properly. But the idea of working on good quality, more expensive paper scares me a bit and I feel intimidated. It's not that I don't have it, we have tons of nice paper in the house. So I figured if I start working on bad paper, maybe I will be able to upgrade my next sketchbook.

All of the artworks are traditional. I used a diverse array of materials like graphite pencils, colored pencils, my favorite little square brush and other few brushes, ink, watercolor, gouache. The postprocessing was minimal, after scanning I cropped the image, I adjusted the contrast and added a paper texture underneath, with a bit of overall cleanup. I recorded most of my progress in hyperlapses which I posted daily on my Instagram.

All of the birds I chose for my Birdtober can be found or have been found in my country, whether they are sedentary, migrant or rare vagrants. Some of them are threatened or endangered species and one of them, the bearded vulture was a nesting species but it was hunted to extinction at the beginning of the 19th century. It has been spotted only a few times ever since.

All of the artworks will be available for sale in one for or another, I haven't really decided just yet. Probably prints and stickers, I'll update the status as I figure it out.