Pete Cromer is an Australian artist I came across on instagram several years ago. He creates beautiful collages of Australian animals. Originally he created stencils and painted paper and digitally configured them into birds. He also cuts paper to make collages of his animals. This article is a great little read if you have the time. He’s all about bright, cheerful color where “Everything and everyone is full of color.” His bird series is what first caught my attention. There are so many beautiful, brightly colored birds- way more exciting than our Robin or Cardinal. His website has a gallery of prints and we’re going to use these as inspiration for making our own birds. I went really big. You should probably go smaller than I did to save yourself time and frustration. Look at his website gallery to figure out which bird you might like to recreate. Stick with the birds that have simple shapes- maybe not the black swan or pelican. Let’s go!

MATERIALS:
+ Large white paper
+ Medium white paper
+ Paints ( I used craft acrylics)
+ Brush and water
+ Scissors
+ Glue

To begin I chose a bird that I wanted to create, in this case the Major Mitchell Cockatiel. On my largest paper (18x24) I painted a single color layer- for me a lovely salmon color. This large paper will serve as a background and needs to complement but not camouflage the bird. Because the cockatiel is light pink, my background couldn’t also be light pink- it would disappear! I looked at Pete’s example and then painted some smaller papers in the colors that I didn’t have on hand: light blue, bright green, light pink, and various shades of grey and some black.

Allow your papers to dry before trying to working with them. I even tried to keep them as flat as possible since my bird was so large, this made cutting much easier for me. The first layer of our bird is the largest- the body. I cut out a large, rounded hill shape. I made the first shape a little larger than I needed and then trimmed it down, little by little to make it the right size and shape. Glue it in place and make sure it’s laying flat, staying in place.

Next I moved on to the wings. I did use Pete’s print as my main inspiration and made a wing exactly like his. I created a white half-ellipse and then layered another light pink half-ellipse on top of it. Body- check! Wing- check!

Next it was time to move on to the medium and small sized pieces. A cockatiel has a beautiful crown of feathers that it can flare up. I made a red section, a small white section, and then created the additional white feathers. I also created a grey beak with a small red piece that connects the beak to the head. The eye was made from black painted paper with a small embellishment of white, a reflection . The cheek was a medium pink paper that I had in my stash from another project. I added some small details that were similar in size and shape to Pete’s and then created an additional layer of the wing out of the light blue paper. Notice he repeats similar shapes for all of his birds. I particularly love an ellipse, but he also uses the raindrop shape frequently as well.

Here’s my finished Major Mitchell Cockatiel. It’s not nearly as beautiful as the works made by Pete Cromer, but it was a great exercise in creating simple shapes and creating a brightly covered bird. It was so fun that I made two more additional birds that I’ll hang in my bedroom. One of these days I’ll have the extra money to buy a large print of Pete’s. One day.

This took me about six hours to make between painting paper, waiting on those to dry, and all the cutting and gluing. This is going to be tough one, but the result is very worth it. Good luck and happy making!

Pete Cromer Inspired Bird Collage