Natalia Balo
Artist and Illustrator
(BFA, MFA, PhD)
Bird Anatomy For Artists
Textbook and Artbook
by Dr Natalia Balo
"Bird Anatomy for Artists" by Dr Natalia Balo - review by Dr Trevor Weekes, The University of Newcastle, Australia
For many years bird artists have been searching for an informative textbook on Bird Anatomy. Until now there have been very few books focusing on Bird Anatomy and drawing birds available, but now the search is over.
Bird Anatomy for Artists has arrived!
Bird Anatomy for Artists is a beautifully presented comprehensive survey of the complete bird from head to tail. The book is full of masterly illustrations that are clear and easy to understand, including black and white working drawings, examples of the artist’s field studies and exquisite colour illustrations. Every part of the bird’s body is outlined in detail with informative text and helpful drawing instructions.
Bird Anatomy for Artists is perhaps the most complete textbook available on this subject. I highly recommend this
reference book not only for Artists, but for anyone interested in Birds.
Dr. Trevor Weekes
Senior Lecturer/Convenor, Natural History Illustration
School of Design, Communication and Information Technology
The University of Newcastle, Australia.
Description
Book Contributors
Editor: Dr Trevor Weekes (DipArt, MFA, PhD)
Consultant: Dr Walter Boles (BSE (Hons), PhD)
Consultant & Foreword: Dr Penny Olsen (BSc (Hons), PhD)
Book cover design: Dr Andrew Howells (BFA, PhD)
Printed by CandidusPrint.com, China.
A1001 of Wangtang Building Wantangcun Bantian, Longgang, Shenzhen 518129, China.
Foreword by Dr Penny Olsen
Birds have long been popular subjects for artists, from scientific illustrators to great masters, whether working on cave walls, watercolour paper, large canvases or sculptures. Bird art can be realistic or conceptual, innovative or conventional, detailed or sketchy, or somewhere in between. Its purpose might be practical, aesthetic, symbolic, humorous, joyful, spiritual, political, scientific or ecological.
As well as the skills to depict feathers, an understanding of bird anatomy is essential for the specialist bird artist. Yet, even the most abstract depictions benefit from a knowledge of the way a bird works and its proportions - how else can a bird’s jizz (the overall impression characteristic of a particular bird species, based on any combination of shape, behaviour, colours, movements, etc.) be captured?
Birds’ ability to fly (which a few species have lost) means that they are assembled differently to more earthbound creatures. The configuration of their skeleton and musculature is unique, their movements are complex, their feathers and therefore their body shape are changeable, perhaps more so than any other vertebrates.
Natalia Balo’s classical training at the prestigious St Petersburg Art Academy, formally known as the Russian Academy of Arts, taught her that in bird portraiture, as in human or any other portraiture, an understanding of anatomy is paramount. In awareness of the limited amount of information on bird anatomy available for art students, she completed a doctorate on the subject at the University of Newcastle. This delightfully illustrated book makes her knowledge accessible to all artists, whether drawing birds for scientific, illustrative or purely artistic purposes.
Penny Olsen
Dr Penny Olsen is a visiting Fellow at ANU Research School of Biology, and a former Editor of the Birds Australia (now BirdLife Australia) magazine, Wingspan. She has written many books on Australian natural history, natural historians and illustrators. In 1997, she was awarded the D.L. Serventy Medal for services to ornithology by the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union. In 2011, she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for “service to the conservation sciences through the study and documentation of Australian bird species and their history”.
How to purchase "Bird Anatomy for Artists"
To purchase a copy of the Book "Bird anatomy for Artist", please use PayPal (Australia only) :
(PayPal account natasha.balo@gmail.com). Your book will be signed by the Artist.
The price of 1 book is US $40+US $15 (Express post Australia wide).
Total US $55.00 (for Australian customers only)
Worldwide postage available at US $40+US $45 (USA and Europe)
For postage to Finland, Izrael, Taiwan and Russia please contact artist for the exact cost of international postage.
Thank you for your support.
