House Finch Illustration – work in progress

This week at Inkberry Studio, I’m learning about Niagara Birds, specifically about the House Finch ‘Carpodacus mexicanus’. The House Finch is native to the west, but in the 1940s pet dealers in New York imported these birds to sell them as “Hollywood finches”. Eventually the pet dealers were forced to release the birds in order to avoid charges by the authorities. Since then, they have spread over much of the east. Work in progress watercolour and Faber-Castell Polychromos colour pencil illustration, ©2014 Tarja K. Kuronen.