Inspiration

This is my 4th Corvid artwork. I'm very intrigued by these intelligent beautiful birds. In rural circles in particular they often have a bad reputation. It is true that they can be the bad boys of the bird world. However a recent study which has studied the interactions between corvids and their prey, demonstrates that their notoriety is not entirely merited!
I'm also interested in the folklore that surrounds these birds. In literature, crows and ravens are sometimes associated with witches and the dark arts. I wanted to give this drawing a distinctive Gothic look. To achieve this I used black pastel paper and gave the background a misty grey look. This also had the effect of drawing the viewers eye to my glorious subject matter, the crow himself.
For reference I used a photo taken by @snapshotcrows in Vienna. An Instagram blogger who uses her love of crows and the pictures she takes of her crow visitors to promote greater understanding of these wonderful birds.