In my next step of the process in my comic, I illustrated and collaged a strip together. I used Photoshop and illustrated the characters by hand with Copic markers. I observed the patterns of the female and male Superb Bird of Paradise, making their markings as accurate as possible by hand.
In the first scene, a video is playing of a couple of Superb Bird of Paradise, with a mating ritual in progress. However, the narration of this video, which will be displayed at the top left of the scene, makes anthropomorphic negative comments. Using keywords such as "taunt", and comparing the ritual to our own human ones. The background of the first scene is an image of the rainforest in Papua New Guinea, the natural habitat of the Superb Bird of Paradise.
In the second scene, we focus out of the video into the living space of a couple of Superb Bird of Paradise. The male bird, pauses the video, communicating with his partner the inaccuracies and disappointments of how humans can represent wildlife behaviors. The scene was originally going to continue, however, I made the decision to end it here. To continue with the birds' mating ritual again would have been redundant, and I feel that the dialogue in the second scene is what's most important.
As well, I have been doing more research about the Superb Bird of Paradise. Learning about the specificities of their mating habits. I also sought out narrated videos of their mating ritual, to understand the tone of their narration.
