‘A lifetime illustrating birds, and a history of bird illustration’, a talk by Mike Langman
When Mike was a youngster he enjoyed copying bird illustrations from books. Then he was told that he ought to be drawing from life so he joined the Peacock Club at Paignton Zoo. At monthly meetings the youngsters drew animals in the collection. This is much easier than drawing birds in the field because holding binoculars and drawing is difficult! Having decided on a career as an illustrator, he took A Level art and then a BA (Honours) Degree in Scientific Illustration. Part of this course involved writing a dissertation on the Future of Modern Field Guides.
The first of the modern illustrated bird books was James Audubon’s The Birds of America 1827. The birds were illustrated life size so although it is a huge tome birds like the blue heron had to be shown with head down in order to get them on the page. The birds painted from stuffed specimen look rather stiff. This contrasts with the line drawings of birds in Thomas Bewick’s A History of British Birds, Volume 1 (Land Birds) 1797 many of which were based on fresh specimens which had not shrunk. John Gould’s illustrations of Darwin’s specimens from his voyage on The Beagle brought the birds to life but his illustrations in The Birds of Great Britain 1862, which were based on old specimens, were less good.
Probably the first field guide as we know them today was Birds Through an Opera-Glass, a book on American birds by Florence A Merriam. Identification was based on a key, as in a flora. Next came the first of Roger Tory Peterson’s field guides to the Birds of North America, a simple guide with illustrations. Later versions contained more colour illustrations and arrows pointing to key features were introduced. The Observers Book of British Birds 1937 had colour illustrations on alternate spreads and included information now associated with a handbook. It was followed by a Collins guide by Roger Tory Peterson and a Hamlyn Guide by the American Arthur Singer. Some of the illustrations in these books were inaccurate but then came Lars Jonsson’s Birds of Europe with North Africa and the Middle East and the 2nd edition of the Collins Bird Guide with illustrations by Killian Mullarney and Dan Zetterstrom. The illustrations were based on sketches made in the field. Mike firmly believes that good sketches of birds provide a much better aid to identification than photos can.
In 1977 Bird Life contained two articles by Eric Ennion about drawing birds from life and there was a competition for members of The Young Ornithologists’ Club. Mike entered and won. In 1978 two of his illustrations were published in Devon Birds. Later, when working for the RSPB, Mike met Richard Porter who offered him a job illustrating a poster and book on birds for children in North Yemen. Mike accepted and spent some time in the country drawing the birds. Next came the Field Guide to the Birds of the Middle East. Mike was one of several artists involved and was allocated kingfishers, rollers, ducks, crows and the Caspian snowcock, a challenging species to find. In order to draw live birds he travelled to Turkey, Cyprus and Egypt. Other species he was able to see in Paignton Zoo and in private collections. Skins are a very important source of plumage details and those at the Natural History Museum at Tring are kept in the dark so the colours remain very good. Initially bird illustrators have to produce little sketches showing how they plan to fit birds on the page. These have to be passed and then the final illustrations are produced, more or less as in the draft. Now Mike’s work has appeared in over 75 books and in magazines. He has also produced interpretive signs and illustrations in hides.
We thank Mike for a most interesting and enjoyable talk. It was fascinating to see how his work developed, starting with a very competent grey wagtail which he drew at the age of 15, and progressing to recent examples. It was also good to learn about the history of our field guides.
Helen Baker
