A few weeks ago I mentioned how much I liked Charley Harper’s geometric, simplified style, and I did a couple of sketches of birds in a generalised Charley Harper style. Here are four birds digitised from those sketches
4 birds in a style influenced by Charley Harper
Of course they look nothing like Harper’s work – much as I admire what he does I can’t seem to copy him exactly (and of course I wouldn’t want to). But after looking at his work it was somehow easier to keep things simple, rather than over-ornament them the way I sometimes do
So now the question is what to do with them. Charley Harper always sets his birds and animals in a background, and that’s what these birds need too. It occurred to me that they might do well as a long, thin panel (or “bellpull”) arranged sitting on a long, thin tree. Some time ago I did a “bellpull” of birds in the style of the American natural history artist Audubon, and I think it should be pretty easy to organise the Charley Harper birds into a similar arrangement
The Audubon "bellpull"
So all I need now is half a dozen more little birds and I can start arranging them on a background of a tree designed in a simple Charley Harper style. It will be a large project but I think the bird designs will look better when placed in the context of a background
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