Cut Paper Illustration: The Singing Bird (Chinese Proverb)

I recently moved around all the furniture on the ground level of our house (well, everything except an enormous armoire overstuffed with books... I wasn't ambitious enough to tackle that one!). I've been feeling the need to change up our decorations, colors, layout... it's a feeling that comes over me every now and then and usually results in a few things being shifted around. This time, however, it has turned into a major project that will be lasting some time...

In all the moving around, I ended up placing our dining room set in front of two large glass doors that lead out to our patio. It has been so wonderful to eat there with a beautiful view of the garden and trees. Lately, we've noticed that every evening around 6:30 pm a Robin perches himself at the very tip-top of an enormous pine tree behind our house. The setting sun shines beautifully on its highest branches and the Robin just sings his little heart out up there. We have been enjoying watching him and even pulled out the telescope to get a better look at him.

I was reminded of a Chinese proverb I came across recently in one of my books:

If I keep a green bough in my heart, the singing bird will come.

It seemed so fitting and I set out to make a cut paper illustration of the proverb. I started with a complete cleaned-up sketch and a rough color layout.

To the cutting board! I started with the bluebird and transferred (either with my light pad or tracing paper) its parts onto colored card stock.

Then each little feather of the front wing was cut out and glued in place...

Here are most of the bluebird and the bough:

I added some subtle details to the bird and painted the details of the branch.

I then mounted them onto the background using 3D foam squares. Then all that was left was the bluebird's song! The music staff was made by quilling strips of pink card stock.

The treble clef and music notes were then cut out and glued to the staff.

The finished piece!

And the aftermath of the creative process! 

P.S. Bonus points if you noticed "Pride and Prejudice" at the bottom left corner! This project was fueled by listening to this fantastic mini-series on repeat. I love it so much!