· Bird Brain 4 out for Stumptown + BB Painting at Tinlark Gallery

Wow, its a busy week for Bird Brain! First off, BB 4 will be coming out next weekend for the Stumptown Comics Fest up in Portland! I actually have a ton of illos and writing left to do this week, but I have faith that it can all get done! This issue will have lots of great sightings in it due to my three great field trips since the last issue (Las Gallinas, Point Reyes, and Año Nuevo), including Northern Harriers, a Peregrine Falcon, Turkey Vultures, Western Bluebirds, and a color spread of a Varied Thrush we found late last year (above)! Plus some bonus non-avian encounters, including a bobcat and Elephant Seals! Family Style will be sharing some space at the Global Hobo table, so look for me there!

Secondly, if anyone is down in LA this month, the original of that color Varied Thrush illo from BB 4 will be on display as part of the Oodles of Doodles group show at Tinlark Gallery in Hollywood! The opening is on Saturday, April 24 (obviously, I can't be in two places at once, so I won't be there), lots of amazing artists, should be rad!

· Shorebirds of Las Galinas

My birder-extraordinaire pal Jeanne Marie and her husband Jim (no slouch himself) took me out for a nice morning of birding at the Las Galinas wastewater treatment facility, which is much nicer than its name implies. With thier help I saw tons of birds that I either hadn't seen before or wouldn't have been able to identify, esp. lots of lovely shorebirds and ducks. I'll be posting more sketches of the birds we saw in the coming weeks (expect the next Bird Brain to be full of stuff from this one trip alone). Here are two of the shorebird species we saw, the Black-necked Stilt and the American Avocet.

· Bird Brain 3 out for Indy Euphoria this Sunday

I am putting the finishing touches on the latest issue of Bird Brain (you can see the Gocco-printed covers above). This issue is all about local birds, spotted within the confines of San Francisco; but there are quite a few new sightings for me in there, from the elusive Brown Creeper to some sketches of two species of egrets, a Great and a Snowy, which I spotted within ten feet of each other on Crissy Field. Below is a photo I snapped of them by using my binoculars to do some very rough digiscoping with the camera on my iPhone! Pretty rough, I know, but I sort of like the effect:


Snowy Egret


Great Egret

This issue also features a first for BB, a full-color centerfold! I was so happy with my painting of a starling that I decided to do some more sketches and create a two-page spread about these garrulous, ubiquitous birds. Look for more color plates in future issues...

I'll be at the Indy Euphoria in Sacramento on Sunday 1/10 ONLY. I'll have all three issues of Bird Brain along with tons of other Family Style stuff, including a new (and very funny) comic from my pal Nick St. John.

· European Starling - In Color!

I did this little ink and gouache illo for a friend's holiday gift... but I might also have some interesting ideas for incorporating a bit of color into future issues of Bird Brain, including the soon to be released third issue (coming out for Indy Euphoria in Sacramento, Jan. 9+ 10)!

· Downy Woodpecker at SFSU

I spotted this little guy a couple weeks back while I was checking out some Pygmy Nuthatches in the trees on campus at SF State. They are actually cutting down a lot of the trees lately... I don't know why, I'm sure the groundskeepers have their reasons, but it is still sad and I hope that these birds which rely on the Monterrey Pines on campus for their food and habitat won't be displaced!

Today, Hannah and I took a morning walk through Alamo Square, Buena Vista, and the Panhandle, and saw the following:

Scrub Jays
Anna's Hummingbirds
Black Pheobe
??? Warbler
Red Tail Hawks
Chestnut Backed Chickadee (?)
Crows
Giant fungus fruiting from a tree

I'll be back later this week with a pic of something we found yesterday which is really exciting and will be the source of a Bird Brain-related project in the coming month!

· Journal Entries from Russian River Trip

My wonderful friend Kate celebrated her birthday by going on a canoeing day-trip on the Russian river up in Marin County, and I was lucky enough to go along... In between rope swings and a delcious picnic lunch, I got lots of chances to "show off" my bird-nerd status by identifying these guys for my canoeing companions. A great day in the outdoors, with three (!) new sightings for me, all below.



Expect the new issue of Bird Brain out for APE this weekend, if all goes well. I have a lot of drawings and birding to do to meet my deadline, but I think I can doit... if I absolutely need to I'll include some older illos from older journals.

· New Stuff: Bird Brain + Pen Pals

I've got a couple of new things coming out for the upcoming SF Zine Fest:


The first is the premiere issue of my ongoing nature journal series, Bird Brain. BB will be a series of slim little zines, with fairly high production values (full-bleed, book-trim, rounded corners, Gocco covers), and a bunch of my journal entries and illustrations from my bird-watching. Expect another issue out for APE in the Fall.
Also, in the spirit of maintaining some regularity with releases of Bird Brain, I'm going to be updating this blog on a semi-frequent basis, with my sketches, thoughts, and journal entries regarding birds and nature. Bird Brain is currently available on my Etsy page, look for it in the Family Style catalog soon. Coming shortly: A few of my notes from a canoeing trip on the Russian River in June!



The second new product is a rather fun one: "Pen Pals" Stationery Grab Bags! I've gone through my overly expansive collection of I Japanese stationery, goofy postcards, and a couple of hand-printed pieces, too, like my "Quail Mail" and "Snail Mail" designs... I had a lot of fun drawing up the little packaging, inspired by (of course) Japanese designs, and also this guy Aaron Meshon, who's little products have very fun and cute packaging! You can get your Pen Pals grab bacg on my Etsy page, too!

· Bird Brain #1 coming out for SF Zine Fest

The first issue of my ongoing nature journal series, Bird Brain, will be released for the upcoming San Francisco Zine Fest! I'm really excited, I've had these illustrations and journal entries sitting around for nearly a year, and I'm really happy to have them out.

Also, in the spirit of maintaining some regularity with releases of Bird Brain, I'm going to be updating this blog on a semi-frequent basis, with my sketches, thoughts, and journal entries regarding birds and nature. Coming shortly: A few of my notes from a canoeing trip on the Russian River in June!

Thanks for your interest!

François

· Some Pages from BB#1

I hope that as Bird Brain develops it might become an outlet for all sorts of nature writing and illustration from me, but for now I'm happy with just getting to spend some time observing and drawing the world around me.