ARTWORK
As I say on my homepage, my dabbling in bird art has gone hand-in-hand with my study of birds. By the age of five, I had already done a “field guide” to the birds of eastern North America in crayon. Some of the illustrations are a bit baffling (a purple Red-tailed Hawk?), whereas others are actually pretty recognizable.
As my skills developed, they were nutured not only by my mother, whose own artistic skill is quite impressive, but by numerous fortuitous opportunities to meet other bird artists and learn tips and tricks from them. Among these were (in rough chonologic order) Wayne Trimm, Roger Tory Peterson, Tony Bennett, Don Eckelberry, David Sibley, Larry McQueen, and John O’Neill, among others. I am grateful to all these great artists for their kind attention and wisdom. I continue to learn from many of them, both through direct contact, or simply by studying their works. The artists I would have to credit with influencing my style most would have to be (for my color work) Louis Agassiz Fuertes (of course), Eckelberry, McQueen, Lars Jonsson, and Ian Lewington and (for my black-and-white work) David Sibley, Ian Lewington, and Jan Wilczur, among others.
Being based at the LSU Museum of Natural Science has been a boon for opportunities to develop my art: not only does it allow me access to one of the most impressive specimen collections in the world, but it has allowed me to meet some very interesting people who have offered me great opportunities to paint, and it has put me in a position to get into the field and practice my hand at sketching birds in life.
My subjects of greatest interest are tropical American birds… apparently dull brown forest birds particularly seem to be disproportionally represented (but then, I guess furnariids, antbirds, and such are among my most favorite birds). I also have illustrated several identification-related illustrations (for journals and field guides), and bird identification is another theme that interests me.
The media I prefer most right now are transparent watercolor and gouache (seems to be pretty popular with many bird artists these days!), ink on scratchboard, and pen-and-ink. I have done a few oil paintings, a challenging and unfamiliar medium for me. With luck, I will have more chances to tinker with it more in the future…
So, all that said… here are some samples of my work:
-Online examples of previous black-and-white work.
-Gallery of some black-and white art
-Link to some sample color illustrations (as with all art on this site, these are copyrighted by Daniel Lane and cannot be used without permission):
Bat Falcon (Falco rufigularis) [sold]
Ruddy and Black Turnstones (Arenaria interpres and niger) [sold]
Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl (Glaucidium brasilianum) [sold] T-Shirt for Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival
Collared Puffbird (Bucco capensis) [inquiries welcome]
Toucan Barbets (Semnornis ramphastinus) [sold] T-Shirt for Field Guides
Scarlet-banded Barbet (Capito wallacei) [not for sale] Auk cover art
Fork-tailed Woodnymph (Thalurania furcata) [sold]
White-masked Antbird (Pithys castaneus) frontispiece [not for sale] Wilson Journal of Ornithology fronticepiece
Rufous Antpitta (Grallaria rufa) [not for sale]
Black-faced Antthrush (Formicarius analis) [sold]
Ocellated Tapaculo (Acropternis orthonyx) [not for sale]
New species of Twistwing (Cnipodectes sp. nov.) [sold] Auk fronticepiece
Gray-mantled Wren (Odontorchilus brannickii) [inquiries welcome]
White-breasted Wood-Wren (Henicorhina leucosticta) [inquiries welcome]
Spotted Nightingale-Thrush (Catharus dryas) [sold]
Cerulean Warbler (Dendroica caerulea) [sold] T-Shirt for Field Guides
-These are three plates I’ve done for the upcoming Field Guide to Birds of Peru: Rails, Small owls, and Swallows 3.
-Publications (illustrations):
1988-present: Masthead of the Montclair Bird Club newsletter, the Broad-wing, and occasional pieces in the text.
1991: Two pen-and inks in Birding 23(4).
1993: Pen-and-ink in the Birding 25(3).
1994: Pen-and-ink pieces in the American Birding Association’s (ABA) Bird Finding in Forty National Forests and Grasslands.
1996: Two pen-and-ink illustrations to Wilson Bulletin 108(3).
1998: Pen-and-inks in the WINGS Tours 1999 catalog.
Two watercolor pieces for Johnsgard’s Trogons of the World.
Twelve watercolor plates for Academic Press’ An Ecotraveller’s Wildlife Guide: Ecuador.
1999: Pen-and-inks in the WINGS Tours 2000 catalog.
Fifty-five figures for Academic Press’ An Ecotraveller’s Wildlife Guide: Peru.
Pen-and-ink cover for Systematic Biology 48(4).
2000: Color frontispieces to Auk 117(3) and Auk 117(4).
Illustrations of thrush identification papers (see research intrests) in Birding 32(2), 32(3), and 32(4).
Pen-and-inks in the WINGS Tours 2001 catalog.
Pen-and ink cover for Bird Observer 28(1).
2001: Color frontispiece for Auk 118(1).
Cover for AOU Monographs No. 52.
Color frontispiece for Wilson Bulletin 113(1).
Pen-and-inks in the WINGS Tours 2002 catalog.
Forty-seven figures for Academic Press’ An Ecoraveller’s Wildlife Guide: Brazil.
2002: Pen-and-ink cover for Systematic Biology 51(1).
Pen-and-ink in ABA’s A Birder’s Guide to Metropolitan Areas of North America.
Color frontispiece for Auk 119(3).
2003: Sunbird catalog 2004
2004: Aleixo, A. 2004. Historical diversification of a "terra-firme" forest bird superspecies: a phylogeographic perspective on the role of different hypotheses of Amazonian diversification. Evolution (58):1303-1317. [b+w cover]
Davis, W.E., Jr. 2004. Sketches of New England birds. Bird Observer of Eastern Massachusetts, Inc., Belmont, Massachusetts. [one b+w illustration]
Delacour, J., and D. Amadon. 2004. Curassows and related birds (second edition; updated by J. del Hoyo and A. Motis). Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, Spain. [one color illustration]
Greenberg, R. and P. P. Marra (eds.). 2004. Birds of two worlds. Johns Hopkins University Press, London and Baltimore. [cover and b+w art]
Valqui, T. 2004. Where to watch birds in Peru. Lima, Peru. [b+w art]
Wings/Sunbird catalogs 2005
2005: Wings/Sunbird catalogs 2006
Color illustration in WildBird magazine 19(6), November/December
2006: Color frontispiece to Wilson Journal of Ornithology 118(1) [also see research interests]
2007: Color frontispiece to Whitney, B. W. 2007. “Kleptoptily”: How the Forked-tailed Palm-Swift feathers its nest. Auk 124(2):712-715.
Cover to Auk 124(3) [also see research interests]
Beletsky, L. 2007. Birds of the World. Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore, Maryland. [several color pieces]
Schulenberg, T. S., D. F. Stotz, D. F.
LANE, J. P. O’Neill, and T. A. Parker, III. 2007. Birds of Peru. Princeton
University Press: Princeton, New Jersey. [several color pieces, see above for examples
of originals painted for this book; also see research interests]
