Beautiful Fruit Dove

I often travel to Raja Ampat islands to guide tourists on a birdwatching and snorkeling tour for 3 to 5 days or even more. During the tour, we watch Red Bird of Paradise, Hooded Butcherbird, Eclectus Parrot, Pinon Imperial Pigeon, Claret-breasted Fruit Dove, Beautiful Fruit Dove, and a lot more. 

Here is my watercolour sketch of the Beautiful Fruit Dove (Ptilinopus pulchellus)

Beautiful Fruit Dove in Waigeo island

When I accompany tourists on snorkeling tours, we go by motorized boat to islands in Kabui bay, Dampier Strait and northeast coast of Waigeo. We swim over coral reef and see a lot of tropical fish including butterflyfish, wrasse, parrotfish, and a lot more.

Pale Blue Monarch

I have just completed drawing a bird called Pale Blue Monarch. First, I created a sketch using ordinary graphite 2B pencil on a small piece of paper. I considered it as a kind of practice to study the shape of the body, wings, head, legs and claws of the bird. The Pale Blue Monarch is a bird that lives in lowland rainforest of Sulawesi. It is a beautiful bird.
I saw it when I was guiding Taiwanese tourists on a birdwatching trip to Dumoga Bone National Park and Tangkoko Nature Reserve in the province of North Sulawesi, Indonesia. He was hopping from one branch of a tree to another.

Pale Blue Monarch from Sulawesi island

Birds play important role in maintaining and preserving rainforest. They disperse seeds from the fruits that they eat. They also work as pest controller. They eat flies, beetles, work, butterflies, spiders and other small insects. By eating insects, birds curb the exploition of insect population thus maintaining the balance of forest ecosystem.
After creating the sketch on paper, I photographed it and transferred it into my tablet. I used Samsung Tab A with S-pen. It was a great tablet. The drawing application that I used was Autodesk Sketchbook. Because I made this drawing in my leisure time, it took around 2 weeks for me to finish it. Actually, I could finish it in one or two days.
Now the higher resolution version of the above drawing is available in prints on various products such as mug, studio pouch, iPhone skin, t-shirt, draw-string bag and a lot more. Please, visit my Redbubble Shop to order the artwork: Pale Blue Monarch

Vector Drawing of Red Bird of Paradise

This is the picture of Red Bird of Paradise (Paradisaea rubra) that lives in tropical rainforest of Raja Ampat particularly in Waigeo, Gam and Batanta islands. There are two species of Birds of Paradise in these islands: Red BOP and Wilson's Bird of Paradise. Their population is shrinking because of continuous hunting, conversion of forest into human settlements, road, and monoculture plantation.

The development of ecotourism in Raja Ampat brings positive impacts to local economy and encourage local people to preserve tropical rainforest and protect paradise birds. Visitors who go there support local homestay owners, boat drivers and guides. With this alternative income generation that is environmentally friendly to rainforest and marine ecosystem, wildlife in Raja Ampat gets better chance to survive in this century.

Vector Illustration of Red Bird of Paradise

To raise awareness about the importance of protecting this paradise bird, I have created a digital drawing of the bird. It is now available in various Redbubble products such as T-Shirt, iPhone and Samsung Galaxy case, pillow, mugs, tote bag, sticker and spiral notebook. To get more info about these products, please, see this link: Red Bird of Paradise Vector Art

Also read:

• A sketch of Red Bird of Paradise
• Male Red Bird of Paradise (digital sketch)

Black-capped Lory

Black-capped Lory (Lorius lory) lives in the jungle of New Guinea and its surrounding islands. I saw this bird when I was traveling to Waigeo island in Raja Ampat archipelago. The bird has got beautiful red, blue, black and green colors. It also has got orange bill with some yellow feather in its tail.
Because of its beautiful colour, a lot of people catch the birds and sell them to big cities in Indonesia. I feel sad every time I see bird in a cage. I prefer watching birds in their own habitat to watching them in cages and in the market.

Black-capped Lory is now available in Redbubble store

Black-capped Lory (Lorius lory) T-Shirt
by tropicalart

As a tour guide, I have guided hundreds of tourists who want to go birding in West Papua particularly in the rainforest of Sorong regency, Arfak mountains or even to Raja Ampat islands. I provide 10x42 mm binoculars and spotting scopes to enhance the birding experience of my guests. Birds are usually active in the mornings and in the afternoons before sunset.
If you are interested in having birdwatching tour with me in the jungle of West Papua, you could contact me by email to: peace4wp@gmail.com or whatsapp: +6281332245180.
Artworks
To create awareness among all of us about the importance of protecting animals, I have just created a drawing of this Black-capped Lory as shown above.
Instead of using coloured pencil or pastel sticks and paper, I used S-pen stylus and the glass screen of Samsung Tab A tablet as my media. So, it is a digital drawing. The principles of drawing are relatively similar. However, I feel that the glass surface of tablet is so flat and slippery. I have to be more careful in drawing lines. The use of digital eraser, the ease of setting brush sizes and colors as well as the superimposition of lines make the digital drawing process faster. Sketching, colouring, hatching are done simultaneously. But I still do manual drawing using pencil and paper regularly.
I hope that you like this bird drawing. Don't forget support this blog by buying some of my other artworks that I made available in my zazzle store at the following links:

T-Shirt

Paradise Birds in Watercolor
by tropicalart

Also read:

• Sketch of Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
• Sketch of Male Lesser Birds of Paradise

White Cockatoo

This is a simple sketch of Sulphur Crested Cockatoo (Cacatua galerita) that I saw in the jungle of West Papua when I guided tourists from The United Kingdom. Local people call it Kakaktua Putih (meaning White Cockatoo) or Buring Yakop (Jacop bird).

Cockatoo like to sit on the branches of a tree early in the morning when they have just woken up. They flap their wings, move or climb to higher branch and make screeching sounds. When one of them flies, they others will follow and together they will make noisy sounds in the sky.
It is not only cockatoo that I and the tourists saw while walking in the jungle. we also saw Papuan hornbills (Rhyticeros plicatus), Eclectus Parrot (Eclectus rotatus), Brahminy Kite (Haliastur indus), and Willie Wagtail.
If you like birdwatching, seeing beautiful nature and are interested in making sketches or taking pictures of birds, butterflies, flowers and the surrounding scenery while traveling, you can contact me to be your guide and sketching mate. This is my e-mail: leororing@gmail.com
Artworks:
Please, support this blog buy buying one of my other artworks in zazzle store below:

Butterfly Drinking Nectar Button
by tropicalart

dolphins-color large tote bag
by tropicalart

Also read:

• Papuan Hornbills
• Northern Cassowary

Bird Knitting Nest

I have just uploaded my old watercolor painting into my Redbubble online store. It is a bird that was knitting a nest. I made this painting when I was still learning watercolor. I was not experienced enough in controlling the wash techniques of this wet media. So, I used watercolor pencils to do the artwork.

a bird was weaving a nest

There are certain species of birds that weave their nests like pockets or socks that are hanging in twigs of trees or in thin vine in the jungle. Birds make this kind of nest to avoid predator. Usually a a female bird weaves a nest from dry grass and fallen twigs after mating season as a preparation to lay eggs.