My ink drawing of "Yidneth and Peti" + photos and curious facts about European Robins

^{Yidneth and "Peti". Ink conceptual drawing for my forthcoming album "Fear no More".}

My illustration of Yidneth and "Peti"

As I have mentioned before "Yidneth" is not myself but a character that appears recurrently in my albums, artworks and even a graphic novel I wrote and that works as the main character that is the thread joining my different projects together. It's kind of my "alter-ego" and "alter-universe". This is just a conceptual ink doodle that will likely end up painting in colours, still I liked the rustic old fashioned look of it just with micron markers over an aged sketch paper. I only used a warm brown sakura felt pen do do the shading and a faber castell dark orange for the robin bird. As I drew the frame by hand it's not entirely symmetrical but I think I like it not to be, it's meant to be just a little "fairy-tale" like ink illustrator in the corner of a page, though I sometimes feel the urge to scan them and turn them into fully illustrated plates I think this one will stay this way. As it will be part of the new album works I'm keeping this one for myself :). But why a robin?
Peti comes from "Petirrojo" (the name in Spanish, literally Rest-breast)

European Robin: Erithacus Rubecula

European robin

I love birds, frail, delicate, wild, free little birds. I feed sparrows daily. Me and Hector call them pichuichuis an invented word that now it is part of my vocabulary with all the other funny names I call cute creatures. I have to say though I have a weak spot for robins. The red breasted European robin Erithacus Rubecula (Petirrojo in Spanish). Maybe since I read the book The Secret Garden I have had a little obsession with the rounded curious friendly little robins.
By the way European Robins are not related with American Robins except that they were named similarly due to the colour of their chest feathers.

Why redbreast if the chest is clearly orange? Orange word was not used until the XVI century

The original name of the species Robin Red Breast was already being used in the XV century where there was not a word for "orange" colour that was lately invented in relation with the fruit "oranges". I have to say though as I'll mention later that I was born in the Canary islands and the subspecies I knew there has a deeper reddish chest. Though it's usually orange.

You can find them in the woods, but also in the hedges and even parks and gardens. The orange breast, frail thin legs and curious big black eyes make them unmistakeable. Though amiable, they tend to be solitary and and very territorial, being aggressive with other robins. Still those black-beaded eyes and friendly curiosity towards humans. Though common and widely spread in Europe, the populations in my area have declined due to the use of pesticides (thought they are not endangered yet as sparrows are)

Both female and male have the distinct orange-red chest and both sing. And they both take care of the chicks until they're ready to leave the nest. They are known for making the nests in the most unusual places with moss and leaves.

And while the wild sparrows rarely approach, robins seem curious and actively come to perch into to your hand if you offer a few seeds (despite being insectivorous).

Every time Héctor @hedac and I hike a confident robin comes to greet us. Though in different locations, we joke that it is the same one (by magic) and even gave it a name "Peti" (from "Petirrojo" in Spanish). It is now even featured in my drawings and videos and will be playing a "cameo" role in the artworks of the new CD being the above doodle one of the conceptual inks.

This is my friend "Peti" again. I just love European robins, aren't they the cutest? Every single time we hike a gentle robin comes to greet us, @hedac and I joke that it is always the same (magic) and call it "Peti" (from "petirrojo" in Spanish).

I was born in the Canary islands where there are different subspecies

I was born in the Canary Islands and though I don't have my own pictures, there we have different subspecies of European Robin there that derived from the mainland colonizing species over 2 million years ago. Thus I grew up knowing the endemic subspecies in the islands, Tenerife (E. r. superbus) and Gran Canaria (E. r. marionae). Other island populations don't breed among themselves so they could be soon considered their own as well.

Illustration made by myself. Photographies of "Peti" by @hedac and me.

Priscilla Hernandez
singer-songwriter & illustrator
http://yidneth.com