Adrian Hillman

@hadrianwild.bsky.social

1953 Followers 611 Following

Re-imagining urban decay. Surrounded by the wonderful wildlife of a Thai garden. Digital downloads available at https://buymeacoffee.com/adrianhillman

Artwork of mixed wading birds on an abstract shore created from a macro photograph of paint flaking away from its rusty base. The light top layer of paint is stained by the underlying rust in places and has flaked away in roughly circular patches to reveal some mauve paint plus lots of rust. Two stilts (birds) are standing feeding together in the middle of the rocky beach with much rust showing through. Below them are three smaller less obvious wading birds foraging amongst the rocks and an unlikely mouse in the corner. Behind the birds the paint has flaked away in an even pattern that appears like light glinting on the sea, and at the top is an area of less-flaked paint with some light scratches showing the mauve paint - a distant flock of waders is flying across this sky.
Artwork of a reindeer or caribou standing besides the melt-water outflow of a glacier. Created from a photograph of old paintwork flaking in layers. The paintwork is cracked and flaking with patches of red, brown and yellow plus a large area of white. The single reindeer is apparently looking to cross the stream of meltwater. There is also a mouse hidden in the image.
Artwork of a silhouetted fox looking at two small flying bats created from a photograph of a stained old wall. The image is high contrast with dark and light areas making it look like an abstract moonlit night-time scene. There is also a small mouse hidden in the image.
Artwork of a flying fox silhouette in flight created from a photograph of a cracked old wall with some of the cracks in front of the bat making it look like the bat is behind the branches of a tree. The bluish grey tone and dark bat give the image an eerie dusk or night-time feel. There is also a small hanging mouse hidden in the image.
Artwork of three hornbills foraging in the canopy of an abstract lush forest created from a macro photograph of cracks on an old wall. The silhouetted dark birds, one of which is flying, are partially hidden within the cracked pattern of the background which resembles branches and foliage. The whole image has a blue tone. There is also a small mouse hidden on a branch.
Artwork of a cheetah chasing close behind a gazelle across an abstract land created from a photograph of a roughly textured and scratched old wall. The foreground is light with a brown tint and the two animals sprinting at full stretch match this as silhouettes against a dark stripe of scrub with a lighter sky above. Everything is heavily textured with a grunge feel. There is also a small mouse hidden in the foreground.
Artwork of a mass of wrinkle-lipped bats flying close together as they do when leaving a cave. This image was created using a photo of a grey old wall with fine cracks and a grainy texture. Where the wall is light the silhouetted bats are dark and vice-versa, with all the bats flying diagonally upwards to the right.
Artwork of gannets diving towards a rough sea on a wild coast. Created as a digital collage from a photograph of a weathered urban surface, the dark birds are backlit against a bright sky with high contrast creating an abstract scene of choppy sea, jagged rocks and a wild sky. There are 5 gannets flying high and 3 in the process of diving downwards.
Artwork of a running hare with long legs. Created as a digital collage from a photograph of the weathered paintwork on an old road-sign with a network of cracks showing the dark rusty base beneath. The light paint has all been stained by the rust to a mid orangey-brown colour. The background is light with the faint lumpy texture from an old corrugated sign-board.
Artwork of a generic owl perched on a branch facing forwards with large eye disks. Created from a photograph of the weathered paintwork on an old corrugated metal fence the bird is mainly black, white and grey with a hint of rusty patches. The eye pupils, beak and feet are yellow.
An artwork of a king penguin standing sideways with its beak tilted a bit upwards in an icy world. The bird and background were created as a digital collage of various macro photographs of weathered urban surfaces including an old wall for the background and the back of a road sign for the penguin's back and flipper-wing.
An artwork of seven black-headed ibis standing in shallow water. The white birds with black legs, heads and necks are standing ankle-deep with their reflections showing. The background wetland is greyish and created from a macro photograph of paint streaks on an old weathered wall, which was turned 90 degrees so the streaks are horizontal.
Masses of wrinkle-lipped bats flying in silhouette against a darkening sky in slow motion. They are leaving their cave and flying between two trees also silhouetted against the sky. The shot slowly pans down to include a view of the flat landscape with dotted lights.
A cartoon illustration of the Thai saying describing bats as "a bird with ears, a mouse with wings" featuring a sparrow with bat-like ears and a mouse with bat wings, plus a few small silhouettes of flying bats in the background.
Three full-frontal views of the same young collared scops owl perched on a branch at night taken with a flash in our garden in Thailand
Slow-motion video of masses of wrinkle-lipped bats flying out of their cave at Nayang in Thailand. The video is looking upwards with the bats silhouetted against the darkening sky as they fly between trees.
Slow-motion video of a column of wrinkle-lipped bats in Thailand leaving their cave with an orange sunset in the background
Front of a black-and-white illustrated leaflet about wrinkle-lipped bats at a site in Thailand created to give tourists and locals a better understanding of the bat spectacle on offer. Simple ink illustrations and brief text.
A dark peregrine falcon flying against a light grey sky with its beak open calling. Its yellow feet are obvious.
Artwork of a flock of eight elegant black-winged stilts feeding in a flooded field. The scene was created from a macro photograph of streaked rust on a metal container with the dark rust staining much of the light yellow base paint an orange-brown colour. The dark rust streaks resemble a ridged field with some of the birds matching the dark rust whilst others match the light yellow paintwork. The tones make it feel like a peaceful late evening scene.
Artwork of a flock of five geese flying over a wild abstract scene that resembles a rough coast or possibly tundra. The image was created from macro photographs of weathered urban surfaces. The foreground and birds themselves are dark blue with heavy scratches while the flaking background has white streaks with scratches and fine cracks plus some hint of rust. The scene feels wild and cold.
Artwork of a hawk's faint silhouette with wings spread out flying at a group of 8 dark sparrows which are scattering in panic. The image was created using a macro photograph of paintwork cracks found on an old wall. The base colour is a light creamy brown with cracks in the paint revealing orange underneath and blue below that give a sense of the branches of a bush.
Artwork of a small group of lesser horseshoe bats hanging from a cave roof wrapped in their wings making them look like dark brown plums. The image was created from a macro photograph of urban decay with the upper part made of dark rust from which the bats are hanging, and the lower part a lighter rough-textured grey colour with some orange-brown staining from the rust. The eleven bats are asleep and not quite touching each other.
Artwork of the chaos of wrinkle-lipped bats flying out of their cave roost. There are over 20 dark bats with long narrow wings flying close together diagonally upwards from left to right. The image is created from a macro photograph of the weathered detail of the paintwork on an old car. The background is blue and white with a lot of intricate detail while the bats are blue and black with the same patterning. These fast bats live in very large colonies in caves and I visit a local one in Thailand every week!
Artwork of a starling taking off in an abstract scene created from a macro photo of the weathered detail of an old sign. A cat is looking up from the background at the departing bird and there are vertical scratches down the image as though made by the cat. The image is high contrast with dark paint flaking away from creamy white with some flecks of blue and rust showing through parts of the scratches.
Artwork of a large flock of fieldfares within a photo of flaking paintwork on an old sign. The background is dark paint flaking away from a cream and yellow base colour with some of the birds light coloured but most dark. A few birds are flying but the majority are perched with some feeding. The image feels like a winter scene.
Artwork of an ibex with long curved horns standing on a snowy mountainside created using a macro photograph of an old sign with dark brown paint flaking away from the cream-coloured underlying base and in places edged with blue. The dark ibex is partially hidden and looking to the right.
Artwork of various animals walking through an abstract winter scene created using a macro photograph of an old sign with very dark brown paint flaking away from the cream-coloured underlying base and some flecks of blue. Each animal is in a pair, namely, fallow deer, hares, rabbits, pheasants, crows and starlings.
Artwork of a clan of 7 hyenas walking through an abstract scene that could be a cave created using a macro photograph of an old public bench showing its concrete base and patches of orange and blue paint. The dark blue hyena silhouettes stand out against the orange behind them but have flakes of blue paint in front of them.
Artwork of a curlew standing in an abstract wetland created using a macro photograph of an old corrugated metal fence with textured layers of weathered flaking paint. In portrait format the dark bird is standing upright near the bottom of the image in what looks like a small pool with lighter colours behind and vague horizontal bands of fine detail above.
Artwork of a flock of small wading birds flying and foraging in an abstract coastal scene created using a macro photograph of an old public bench showing its concrete base and some patches of orange paint. There are 9 birds feeding or standing on the ground and 7 flying. Against the darkest areas of the background the birds are light coloured and vice-versa. The effect is of a wave splashing over the foreground.
Artwork of many bats flying together created using a macro photograph of an old corrugated metal fence covered in flaking paint and spots of rust. There are a few large dark bats overlaid and inter-mingled with much smaller bats some of which are dark and some light. The effect is a chaotic exodus of bats leaving their roost within the texture of urban decay.
Two well camouflaged Indian nightjars sitting together on the ground amongst the fallen dry leaves and scattered greenery. Taken from a low angle, one bird is facing the camera and the other is side-on. From our garden in Thailand.
Photograph of the dry leafy debris on the ground in our garden with some bits of short grass and other green plants. Hidden within this are two Indian nightjars resting on the ground about one metre apart.
A superbly camouflaged Indian nightjar sitting on the ground next to a clump of bamboo surrounded by leaf-litter. Photo taken with a telephoto lens almost at ground level.
An Indian nightjar sitting on the ground with its eyes half open surrounded by dry grass, leaves and fallen seed-pods. The mottled grey-browns of the bird give it superb camouflage.
Illustration of a woodpecker clinging to a tree trunk close to a hole in the tree. The abstract tree is a photograph from a rusty sheet of metal with the rusty staining forming the tree, and the black-and-white woodpecker with small red patches on its head and under its tail is made from three other macro photographs of urban decay.
Illustration of two sea lions swimming together in ocean surf from above. The sea lions are dark silhouettes blended into a photograph of the intricate cracks on the paintwork of a very old car. The cracks are white and give an impression of fine bubbles floating on the water surface over a blue background. The sea lions are behind the bubbles so they appear to be below the water's surface.
A digital collage illustration of a small kingfisher with a fish in its beak perched on a white skeletal abstract tree. The white tree with blue background is a macro photograph of cracks on a weathered road sign. The bird is made from a photo of the brightly coloured flaking layers of paintwork from an old vehicle with yellow, red, green and brown patches.
A digital illustration of a flock of wading birds flying from right to left within a macro photograph of thick whitish paint peeling off the bodywork of an old lorry revealing the dark greenish-blue of the underlayer. The dark brown birds are only visible in the remaining bits of white paint giving the flock a fragmented look.
Digital illustration looking down at a koi carp swimming under concentric-circle ripples. The fish is orange and the water blue and white with both having the texture of burnt paintwork from a photo of a paint pot lid found in an old bonfire. This texture incudes areas of circular paint flakes that in this artwork look like bubbles.
Photo taken with a flash looking up at 4 black-bearded tomb bats clinging to a cave wall in Thailand. Each bat is in the typical pose for this species with the claws on their two wings wide apart to brace against the wall and their pointed snouts pointing outwards to show the small black patch of fur under their chins.
An illustration of a man carrying an enormous oval-shaped jackfruit on his back. On bended legs and bent forwards the man is weighed down by the fruit which looks heavier than he is. The fruit and man are filled with textures from urban decay photographs with the fruit being green with brown rusty splodges.
A GIF video of wrinkle-lipped bats flying out of their cave in Thailand as a continuous stream in the evening. The bats are light-coloured and blurred making them look a bit ghostly against the dark background with no other details visible. The video repeats on a 2-second loop with roughly 50 bats in view in each frame.
Video of an array of several square metres of small mirrors mounted on a metal frame to focus sunlight on a turning rack of pork ribs in Petchaburi, Thailand. Apparently a chicken will cook in about ten minutes using this.
A photograph of an abstract close-up detail from a roadside sign found in Thailand that resembles an eye with the silhouette of a crocodile added to make it look both more like an eye and a drying watering hole. There's an oval of pure rust, which is lighter and more orange towards the centre and has a rough texture. It is surrounded by red paint which is finely cracked showing thin white lines that mainly lead to the rusty oval in the centre.
A photograph of an abstract close-up detail from a roadside sign found in Thailand that resembles an eye. An oval of pure rust, which is lighter and more orange towards the centre and has a rough texture, is surrounded by red paint which is finely cracked showing thin white lines that mainly lead to the rusty oval in the centre.
A digital collage of a gull's head pointing to the left, created using a variety of textures from weathered urban surfaces. The gull is mainly flaky white paint with fine cracks and patches where the paint has fallen off to reveal dark rust underneath. The yellow and red of the beak and eye are from a different photograph of weathered paintwork. The blue, white and grey background is the messy paint on an old wall and includes the silhouettes of a few distant flying gulls.
A digital collage of a seal swimming amongst waving strands of kelp, created using a variety of textures from weathered urban surfaces. The seal is mottled grey and brown from the texture of an old wall. It is surrounded by the vertical kelp leaves which are a mixture of different flaking paint and rusty surfaces, mainly in green, orange and yellow. The background through the kelp is blue.
A digital collage of a hyena standing on a rocky outcrop facing to the right, created using a variety of textures from weathered urban surfaces. The hyena is black with a bright pattern of worn yellow and orange paint. The outcrop consists of three levels - the upper one is green and blue paint on rusty metal; the middle one is orange and yellow with rust, and the lowest is yellow and blue paint also with some rust showing. The background sky behind the hyena is weathered blue paint on a wall with some bits flaked off to show grey underneath.
A digital collage of a dipper standing on rocks beside a stream in the rain created using a variety of textures from weathered urban surfaces. The bird is orange-brown with a white bib and the background is a mixture of green, blue and brown mainly from photos of worn paintwork.
A digital collage of a three redshank wading birds standing, with two others flying behind in an abstract blue background. The closest bird has its beak open. The standing birds have red legs and beaks but their bodies are a variety of textures from weathered urban surfaces. The flying birds are dark blue with horizontal streaks, and there are a few tall grass stems in the foreground.