In quarantine, I picked up the hobby of birding and I’m a total bird nerd now! It is so much fun trying to snap a clear photo of birds in the wild. I captured this roadrunner up close while camping near the Hoover Dam and I had to turn him into a character illustration.

For the background, I used a reference photo taken from one of my favorite hikes: Druid Arch in Canyonlands National Park.

The bee is from another reference photo I took. I’m really enjoying using my own reference photos. It makes each illustration mean more because I remember where I took it and the excitement of capturing it on camera. It also means I can stay truer to the reference.