"Standing Tall"

Presenting the Ae'o which means "standing tall" in Hawaiian. They can stand up to 16" tall and are on the endangered species list due to habitat loss, and the introduction of predators to Hawaii. I don't think the smile left my face as I drew this beautiful bird.

This piece ended up being a combination of pencil, charcoal and acrylic paint. This is a very black bird and I just couldn't get the lead/charcoal to go black enough for my liking. I ended up doing little touches of blue mixed with umber for the darkest darks. I bet this piece would be turn out great using India ink.