June 12, 2007

115: The Blue Suited Booby

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Every girl's crazy for a sharp-dressed man ­ – so I hear, constantly, on the classic rock station shooting out of each Camaro here in town.


But there's substance to the argument; in the bird world, appearance is practically everything. While it can be said that approximately two out of every three ZZ Top band members are intensely bearded, the ratio of male bird species that rely on colourful, attractive or otherwise distinctive plumage to lure potential mates is much higher. Boiled down: the suit makes the man.

Some species that live in massive colonies made of birds appearing precisely the same ­ – like the blue-footed booby ­ – require other means to identify individuality. Brilliance of the feet is an asset, but the male also makes use of an elaborate courtship dance to attract attention.

Nonetheless, my submission for this week's Illustration Friday theme of suit suggests ­ – as ZZ Top will tell you ­ – that in the mating game, a nice suit goes a long way in seperating contenders from pretenders.

12 comments:

spacedlaw said...

Of course birds know how to do this courting game best.
Fun drawing.

Melissa said...

Nice boobies. Heh heh.

(C'mon, someone had to say it.)

Anonymous said...

This is really good!

Jeope said...

Melissa, that's just not right. What's Dave supposed to put in his comment now?

Tina Poe said...

This is perfect! Love everything about it!

Amy Farrier said...

Great job. I love the birds' body language.

Nina Seven N7 said...

nice illo. i love the graph paper as the background, gives it an added texture.

Carol H. said...

Very nice! You've captured the birds perfectly, and I love the graph paper background.

Rachel Lewis Illustration said...

oooo I love the paper background... such a well-executed illustration. I like it! :)

studio lolo said...

Everything about this shouts perfection! It's my fave of the week :)

lew! said...

clever, clever jeope.

nadja said...

funny, I saw your drawing on SFG too and I was just about to comment on it as soon as I got back online:) I like the idea of the bird in suit, but it is the style that really caught my eye. Really cool!