The All Blacks, they're not!

In 2011, the Rugby World Cup was held in New Zealand.  A friend of mine, Ray, traveled with his wife to New Zealand, primarily to support the Irish team but also to take a holiday in a country that he had long had an interest in.

Now I’m not going to go into the highs and lows of the rugby campaign, exciting and all as it was and when Ray returned, we all had to relive it over again many times at the coffee table in work; no, what really caught my interest were the photographs he took while travelling through the country.  One photo in particular stood out.  It was a shot of two black swans.  A rare sight here in Ireland, they seemed strange and exotic.  Knowing I had a penchant for drawing fur and feathers, Ray asked me to draw or paint a picture of the swans and I was happy to oblige. 

I started to do some research into these beautiful creatures as I find it difficult to work from just one photo. The first thing I discovered is that they are not black, well not completely.  They have beautiful white flashes on their wings which are very striking when in flight – that’s definitely on my list for future paintings, but even their dark feathers are mainly a very dark brown with light edges which range from a grey to pink tint.  Of course, they also have that signature red beak.

What also surprised me was how much they differ from their white cousins in the arrangement of their tail feathers which form a series of ruffs moving towards the tail.  I had a lot of fun painting this and Ray says it’s now hanging in his hallway. 

If you’re in New Zealand, look out for some black swans but if you’re looking for the real All Blacks, you’ll need to see their formidable rugby team and hopefully, it won’t be the Irish team facing them while they perform their Haka.