Drawing Bluebirds in Love: Inspired by Disney

Last year’s Valentine’s drawings began without much planning.

While working on a whimsical still life in Adobe Fresco, I included a small illustrated photo album as part of the composition. It was simply meant to sit quietly within the scene, yet my attention kept returning to it. I began wondering who might belong inside those pages. The answer gradually took shape as a pair of bluebirds.

Here is the still life in mid progress in Adobe Fresco

Their presence felt immediately familiar. These were not entirely invented characters but reflections of the pair of bluebirds long embedded in the visual language of classic animation. Those gentle companions drifting through early Disney films, hit me with a welcomed wave of nostalgia.

Moments like this always remind me that ideas do not need to be forced. They tend to surface when space is made for them. Creative work rarely moves in straight lines. Sometimes the smallest elements become the most persistent.

What followed became a small sequence of drawings and videos. One drawing led naturally into another. The still life gave way to the birds themselves, and the birds gradually suggested a quiet story. The narrative was never fully predetermined. It emerged through drawing.

All of the work was created in Adobe Fresco, which continues to feel closest to my natural way of working. Each bird began as a loose sketch on a pixel layer and later the  vector brush introduced the structure with clean graphic visuals. This tends to be the rhythm I follow, sometimes I refer to this as rabbit holes, which leaves room for small shifts in direction.

Looking back, these pieces feel less like Valentine’s projects and more like a record of where my attention decided to wander at the time. I really enjoyed the process. The bluebirds became a thread connecting the still life, the imagined narrative, and the final vintage inspired Valentine that eventually appeared on the same table.

The Vintage Valentine mid-progress in Adobe Fresco

Realistically, these Valentines will not be available this season. I have simply run out of calendar. They may return next year. There is a certain clarity that comes with allowing work to wait rather than pushing it forward to meet a date. My focus at present rests elsewhere.

Much of my studio energy is currently directed toward preparing the shop for launch. Building, organizing, and refining the structure on the website which surrounds the work. This stage of being an artist is quieter but no less absorbing.

The videos remain, which is something I value. They hold the drawings in their formative state, capturing decisions, adjustments, and the gradual appearance of the birds themselves.

For anyone curious about the bluebirds and the still life they inhabit, the full process lives on my YouTube channel.

As with most things in the studio, the next ideas are already taking shape somewhere just beyond the page.

Happy Valentine's Day from Web of Pen 💕