Postcard 8: The Hatchling

This postcard is a peek into the domestic lives of some of the wildfowl inhabiting the dark and barren reaches of a high mountain range. All babies need to eat, and we can be sure Mother Feather takes very good care of her young. Of course, straying too close to a hungry babe while being a nutritious and tasty morsel is rarely a wise idea. I strongly recommend staying well away from the mountain nesting places.

There’s a nod to Jurassic Park’s miracle of life here, with the cutest lil velociraptor pushing her head out of the incubated egg and the clutch between the tree roots when Life Finds a Way. The gooey albumen is a favourite touch, inspired by the dripping maws of the Alien and the canopies being pecked open by crows in Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds – the Dead London landscape by Geoff Taylor if memory serves. The goo really makes this pop. Just like that egg.

As with the Satyr, Castle and Arboracuda paintings, this is painted using layers of inkwash with white acrylic paint and sepia ink. It’s one of my favourite colour schemes as it carries a depth which pure black and white cannot capture, while retaining the dramatic contrast and dusk-like desaturated warmth. I’ll be using this method more in future.

Acrylic on greyboard, 161 x 235mm.

Daler-Rowney FW inks:
Black, Sepia
W&N Galeria paint:
Titanium White