ABOUT ME

I started drawing birds as a young boy as a means of learning about them, these were typically simple but gave an insight into the way birds looked and behaved. Sketchbooks became filled as I got older and I began to send drawings to British Birds and Birding World magazines, culminating in being asked by Richard Porter to help illustrate the Birds of the Middle East.

I continued sketching, but illustratively from there I went on to paint 140 plates for Birds of East Africa, Birds of the Horn of Africa, volumes for Birds of the Thai-Malay Peninsula and Birds of Africa: Madagascar & Indian Ocean Islands – books for which most of the paintings here were produced. I also worked on BWP Concise, Reed & Bush Warblers of the World and was lucky enough to get work on the last volumes of Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW), which included extinct species and also the Galapagos finches – handling specimens collected by Darwin at the Museum of Natural History was a real highlight!

Recently, I have just finished work for a new guide to the Birds of Brazil: Outside Amazonia; working with the great Bret Whitney has taught me a lot about my work and the way I paint. I have nearly completed work on a new guide to Southern Africa and have more projects in the pipeline…

Though my technique has changed over the years, I still work hard on the layout and design of plates (as well as accuracy), trying to create something visually attractive and not just ‘an illustration’, things that I hope can be seen in the paintings shown here.

Brian Small - 2022