Books

Put a bird on it

Berlin-based artist Felix Scheinberger's 100 Ways To Paint A Bird offers 328 pages of luscious illustrations centred around the theme of birds, taking inspiration from everything from the Book of Kells to film noir.

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Do you just know there’s art somewhere inside you, but freeze before the blank white page?

Berlin-based illustrator Felix Scheinberger is here to offer inspiration with Illustration: 100 Wege Einen Vogel Zu Malen (100 Ways To Paint A Bird).

Something between a coffee table book, textbook and self-help book, 328 pages lushly illustrated by 170 artists examine the illustrator’s profession and passion, all connected by the theme of, yes, birds.

If that’s putting overly twee tote bag imagery in your head, think again. There is so much more to this book: caveman etchings, excerpts from the Book of Kells, film noir posters, witty cartoons, gorgeous watercolours and things that look like they came from a nightmare – heads of Alsatians on bodies of sparrows, for example.

A lecturer in illustration at FH Münster, Scheinberger’s text draws on years of experience to offer wisdom on technique, self-marketing, portfolio and pricing negotiations. It’s in German though. Sorry, Ausländer, you can still look at the pictures.

100 Wege Einen Vogel Zu Malen, Verlag Hermann Schmidt, €39.80