EASTERN BIRDS

Eventually, this area of my website will include a series of essays about the preparation of my Golden Field Guides, Eastern Birds, and its long-overdue companion guide to Western birds. 

For now, I have posted sample pages from Eastern Birds, as well as a sampling of unpublished paintings prepared for the Western guide. I think the new plates for Western Birds represent the very best illustration work I have ever done. I hope you enjoy this sneak peak at them.

 Original 1994 edition of Eastern Birds
Original 1994 edition of 
Eastern Birds

Ultimately, I hope to open a window into the processes involved in preparing a bird guide—and will show you step-by-step how a field guide illustration comes together.  I will also explain how I have devised shortcuts in the very labor-intensive process by taking advantage of digital techniques for combining pieces of existing paintings into new “virtual” illustrations.

So, come back again soon. 

 Revised edition of Eastern Birds, published in 2001
 Revised edition of 
Eastern Birds,
published in 2001

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