"Bird 162" part 2.

"Bird 162" has come along nicely. In this engraving I have use a little blending too. Not everything went quite to plan...

"Bird 162" - a looking good (I thought...)

For some reason I had removed the masking tape before painting which was not in my plan. Obviously I put new tape back on and continued...

"Bird 162" - suffering masking problems.

Now I have removed the second masking tape but it did not quite do the trick. You can see that the pale blue has sneaked under the edge of the mask, mainly at the top so I no longer have a nice crisp edge. Other than this problem I think things have worked out nicely. I will correct the unexpected masking and then I will show you the final piece, soon.

"Bird 162".

There is a list.

This list goes back to the year 1600 AD. 

It is a sad list.

The list has the names on it.

All the names are those of birds.

All of the birds on the list are now extinct.

The subject of my latest work is bird number 162 on the list.

"Bird 162" - stage 1, a fair bit more to do (and my mobile snap is cropped as you can see by the beak).

There is only one known very poor quality photograph (possibly on an early low resolution digital or mobile phone camera) of this bird. A little has been written about this creature such as where it lived and died. There is only one known stylised picture of this bird.

I have taken what we know and will shortly present the only known engraving, "Bird 162".

I'll tell you more soon.

Very early animated graphics timed to music...

You need to drift back in time now. You are drifting far back. Right back to the early 1980s:-

I was toying with ideas when I decided to try to get our "BBC Micro" (computer) to draw animated pictures in time to music. I am not sure but I'd never heard of this being done before then. I simply plugged some wires from a speaker output through a filter into the back of the computer to pick up the bass beat. Next I knocked up some code to let me pick from a number of pre-drawn images that I made or it would generate one in computer code (lots of spinning lines or polygons, stuff like that).

Snap back to today:

I was looking at some old photos when I came across the only image I think I have of this. In it you can see the "hi-fi", a cassette player, and on the right a TV picture with some lines drawn on it. You are going to have to crank up your imagination here...

Just image the (hissy cassette) music, (go on, get into the era). Now, (never having seen it before), on the telly, lines moved. And they changed colour and direction in time to the funky beat! Then the image would change and you had things like cocktail glasses shattering (and re-assembling) to the tune (each frame previously hand drawn on the computer).

I took this photo as we were getting ready for a party (so the computer is set up under the cupboard the TV is on) and we used this throughout the party as a curious musical accompaniment (along with a homemade sound to light unit!). I'd got the music to graphics going a year or so before this but here we are, June or July 1984:

"Far out"

(as it was not cool to say anymore, even back then but I like the expression).

Yes, but was it art?

I like to think so.

The Birds

I decided to do a series of endangered birds for my next artwork. These will be more engravings. I have started them.

Days later...

A strange thing happened! There were a lot of soft sounds like some small soft lumps tumbling down a chimney and landing behind a blocked off fireplace. After a while the sound of falling stopped but then there was another intermittent sound. A faint sound. An unfamiliar sound. Then there was a faint aroma like moist plaster. What could it be?

I thought that perhaps birds had just dislodged some old soot or something along those lines. Nothing to worry about. Nothing of note. Nothing going on here. Move along now.

Later in the day I was in the same room. Now the smell had gone but it sounded like something was scratching around. If I made a sound in the room the scratching stopped. Were the neighbours up to no good?

I decided to investigate and pulled away some dusty books. These had accumulated tiny bits of very old plaster or perhaps cement. Behind these was an air vent. Time to investigate.

I had to move piles of maps, piles of shelving, piles of files to get enough access to the vent. I screwdrivered it off and tried to see inside. Nothing but muck. I was about to put my hand inside when, in the vent opening, a scaly leg was plonked down within my field of view. A black bird perhaps. No, the leg is way too big and I can't imagine that a dainty song bird would need such talons! It must be a crow!

Anticipating mess, I had a black bin bag handy already so I put that against the vent opening. I thought the bird might see the big space and hop in to investigate. Instead, the draft sucked the bag flat against the hole. I need a glove or the crow will start eating me. I propped a book against the bag to keep it there but then the crow started pulling at it. I quickly pulled the bag out again and leant an even bigger book against the hole. I'm a bit worried that the crow will be strong enough to shove the book out of the way. Just imagine the clouds of mess a soot covered crow will make in your house if it gets a chance to flap about. The pale carpets! The white sheets. Nooooo. And then how would I catch it?

A quick move is needed. As luck would have it, my coat is in the same room & I have a thick glove in the pocket. One glove on I reach into the vent hole. The crow is not happy about this. I don't want to hurt it but know I need to be gentle as it might snap a wing or something if pulled too hard. I grab a leg but that's not much good. I grab something else, it's rear end! The crow finds a grip with those claws on the edge of the vent hole. I have to undo its talons but then another one reacquires the grip. I lever it away. One crow bottom & one crow leg out but now one wing looks to be a problem.

I turn the crow a little, one wing out, one flailing pecking occasionally cawing head and now I can remove and gently pull the whole angry bird out taking care not to catch the wing. It is out!

Now I'm trying to keep this livid creature pointing down as I open doors with one hand. It tried to flap about but I manage to not release it in the hall. As it sees the bright sunshine streaming through the house door windows it struggles to get free.

We get outside and I think the bird must think that it is pulling me along & wonders if it will be able to fly with me holding on. In case it has hurt a wing or something I release it over a foot square gate post so it has something to land on. No need, the crow is fine and free. It cawed a thank you (or an insult?).

Sorry, no photo of the actual bird but HERE is a crow I photographed on another occasion! 

I'll show you my engraved birds soon.