The Ruffled Crow

Birds on Paper is a series of drawings by Paula Swisher. While the title is technically correct, the ‘Paper’ part doesn’t fully describe the medium. The paper is the pages of textbooks, preferably ones with graphs.

We’ve all doodled in the margins, maybe even “enhanced” a picture, but Ms Swisher’s work takes it up a notch.

Reminiscent of natural history text illustrations, it feels appropriate, especially as the figure often takes cues from the page it’s drawn upon.

Paula Swisher is currently a professor of Communication Design at Kutztown University […] She enjoys straddling the two worlds of the creative and the technical. The hand-drawn mark, grid-based design, and info graphics are all things that keep her excited.

via paulaswisher.com

She has a few different collections and collaborations up at her website, but Birds is my favorite.

S is for Sparrow

Blue Ink Pen Implementation

Silhouette Juxtaposition

The Normal Cardinal

More of Paula Swisher’s work at paulaswisher.com