"Mugged By Gulls" Illustration

This is probably the moment that nature lost a fan. And I suspect the boy might grow up to become a pest controller.

I was fortunate enough to never experience such trauma at the hands/beaks/claws/teeth/stingers of nature so I grew up in love with wildlife and this has never left me. The only negative childhood memory of nature I have is a bee sting but even that was wrapped in fascination at the close-up view of the bee struggling to pull itself off my hand. I had accidentally caught it in the palm of my hand as I slid down a playground slide and the experience put me off slides more than bees!

I find that I usually end up with a favourite part of any illustration I draw. In this case it is the expression on the main gull's face (the one doing the crapping). When I first drew it I gave the bird an open beak but that just made it look angry and aggressive. Closing the beak produced this far more casual attitude of "I am crapping on your head just because I can", which is how I see these birds. They grow so used to us that it is a case of familiarity breeds absolute contempt.

On a camping trip in Iceland many years ago I watched one guy getting dive-bombed by great skuas (like large brown gulls) who had a chick on the ground to protect somewhere nearby. This guy was quite scared of them so started running. The birds reacted by increasing their diving whilst also crapping on him presumably feeling very pleased with themselves for successfully driving away such a big predator. For my friend and I who watched it was one of the highlights of the trip.

Artwork available at my Redbubble shop.