Valentine Vultures

February 14th, Valentine's Day, what better than the share the joy of love than by drawing some black vultures!

Despite feasting on rotting carcasses, black vultures are surprisingly loved up creatures. Once they find a mate, they stay together for life. Black vulture culture (note the cool rhyme!) frowns upon extra-marital relations. If a member is caught in flagrante with another outside of his partner, the other vultures will attack the offending participants. Crazy!

Here's how I pieced it together:

1. Quick notebook sketch

2. Another notebook rough 

3. Proper sketch, trace and mirror other side

4. Lightbox, trace over pencil with pen version

5. Needed a photo reference - Wikipedia

6. Inking up the feathers and skin

7. Feather details and shadowing

8. Final inked version

After stage (8) I scanned in the line art and played with colours, textures, layers and text in Photoshop to produce the final design at the top and the cropped in close-up below.