Pileated Woodpecker

Samiksha Gajbhiye

4th Semester, Industrial Design

Nature and Form Course

Faculty- Snehal Joshi

National Institute of Design, Andhra Pradesh

In this course we have to study a natural form. The objective is to simplify the form to its simplest one so as to retain its essence. This abstraction should have the very characteristics which give this form its identity.

In our first class we were given a fruit or vegetable in a bag and we were asked to sketch it based how it felt in our hands, the texture what color it had. It was important to not know what fruit and vegetable it was.

This exercise was important to understand the form as just a form and not with what we know it as. Looking at an apple and seeing an apple but a circular form with depressions at the top and bottoms. Looking at the form to find what gave the form that identity. What is it the shape? the color?

The natural form that I have chosen is Pileated Woodpecker.

I started with researching about the bird.

Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) is a woodpecker native to North America. The term pileated refers to the bird's prominent red crest, with the term from Latin pileatus meaning "capped".

Last semester in form course we had to use simple geometric shapes to depict different attributes.

I started showing the woodpecker's form in the simplest shapes to understand its geometry. I did these for the bird's resting position and in the flight. I gave them attributes based on these geometric shapes.

rest position

in flight

Once there was an understanding of the simple form I started giving little detail to the form.

As can be seen in the following sketches the wings are made with the help of circular forms.

The movement and balance of the form can be seen.

Then I used to color to further detail the form. The following sketches show how the colors changed our perception while looking at the form. How can color change how we look at a form? The striking red crest gave the form an identity to differentiate it from others woodpeckers. It is sharp and aggressive. The white and black colors on the wing create a sharp contrast. There is a pattern than can be seen.

The nest which they make with their not so pointing beak are oval in shape.

The red crest and the red stripe on the cheek can be seen from far away.

The male and female can be differentiated based on the red stripe on the cheek. Its absent in females.

The colors are bright and contrasting and sometimes can be overwhelming. So I made the form devoid of color to understand the form better.

As can be seen in the below image the form looks imbalanced and assertive.

A rhythmic pattern can be seen on their feet and claws.

Note in the first shot how the woodpecker's body is arched downward with the down-stroke. Level flight then means level body.On the upstroke, the pileated woodpecker's body arches upward, although not as much as with the down-stroke. So in addition to the wings flapping, the entire body is in motion to accommodate the wing flaps.On the ground, with folded wings, the pileated woodpecker is still magnificent.

I wrote down the different attributes and design principles they followed.Design is implicit in nature in even its simplest forms.

Rhythm

There is a rhythmic pattern that can be observed on the feet. These patterns are decreasing in size gradually. Rhythm can also been seen in the movement of the wings in flight.

Variety

Variety in shapes and sizes can be seen in the pattern of the feet.

Variety in the color gives its an unique identity to be differentiated from other forms.

Variety in texture, the two dimensions tactile quality and visual quality. Tactile quality can be felt and appreciated by touch like the feathers and crest and also the roughness of the beak.

Balance

The variety in shape, size, colors and texture creates balance in the form. The stiff body is balanced by the flexible wings. The white color is balance by the black.

Contrast

There is sharp contrast of color on the wings and the head part. Contrast can also been seen in the texture, the roughness of the beak and softness of the feathers.

Unity and Harmony

Even with all the contrast and variety they all possess a certain fundamental similarity. They are in harmony.

15 JULY 2020

Evolution of Woodpecker

A research paper, Evolutionary morphology of the woodpeckers (Picidae) by Walter J. Block shows how incredibly the the feet, tail, beak and tongue have been evolved to catch the insects.

Structures of the toes, hind limb and tail are associated with climbing. All forces acting on the climbing bird can be determined with the Method of Free-Body Analysis, which together with measurements of hind limb and tail features and of the tree surfaces used by different species, will permit understanding of the evolution of climbing adaptations. Bill shape and M. protractor pterygoidei development correlate with forces on the bill during drilling. Again Free-Body Analysis shows that compressive shocks acting on the bill do not travel directly into the brain case and hence the brain, but result in a compressive stress in the base of the skull. The frontal overhang in specialized drilling woodpeckers provides a bony stop that prevents excessive abduction of the upper jaw during non-impact periods while drilling into trees. Specializations of the tongue are connected with greater protraction of the tongue to obtain food. These features not only include longer protractor and retractor muscles, but a universal joint between the basihyal and the fused paraglossalia and the enlargement of two pairs of intrinsic muscles inserting on the paraglossalia enabling movement of the tip of the corneous tongue in all directions.

FEET

The climbing is facilitated with the special arrangement of the toes and the structure of the hind limb muscle.

The small scales provide a better gripping surface and greater resistence to abrasion of the feet and of the tarsometatarsus against the surface of the tree. The callus at the “heel” of the tarsometatarsus provides greater protection to the abrasive action at this part of the legs. When climbing, the fourth toe of woodpeckers is not reversed to the rear of the foot, but is extended laterally. The claws has to be strongly curved and sharply pointed to have a good grip of the bark.

perching foot(left) & climbing foot(right)

Climbing and perching foot

As can been the small scale in the last foot facilitates climbing and perching as flexibility is enhanced.

BEAK

Why don't they get headaches even after banging their heads against the tree?There is an existence of shock absorbing mechanism in the skull, further there are contracting muscles.

The force is shifted from the upper jaw(which is broad in high ended evolution) to the brain and from there to other part and deceleration happens with the help of eyes.

The brain is tightly packed in the skull to reduce shock

Skull(left) & beak and nostril top view(right). Arranged in order of most specialized to least (top to bottom)

TONGUE

Unlike the human tongue which is made up of muscles, the woodpecker's tongue is made up of cartilage and bone skeleton called the hyoid apparatus. This is an elongated version of tongue of others species of birds. The tongue can be protruded and retracted over a long distance with a good control of twists and turns to capture the insects.

Highlighted is hyoid horns

PLUMAGE(collective bird's feathers)

Most of the species have similar plumage because of the competitive mimicry. Multiple species in a geographical location evolve similarly in response to the predator. It is also strongly affected by the geographical location. There is strong correlation between the plumage color and humidity.

Life cycle

The form develops as can be seen in the below stages of the development of the embryo. The characteristic red crest keeps getting sharper and pigmented with age.

17 JULY 2020

I started with the wire exploration, using minimum of it to express the form. The form appears to be unbalanced, there is sharp aggressiveness at the top of the form because of two acute angled shapes. This unbalance and acute angled form makes it looks interesting.

Wire explorations help visualize the form in 3D. The lines which once were in 2D now can also be used to depict the volume of the form. This helps understand the from well from different angles. First I start with using wire without constraining the quantity of it to make the form. Then I reduce the material and show the form having the same characteristics and

essence.

While making the second form , I question,

Is the volume necessary?

form 1

form 2

To have more idea about the volume of the form I use foil and clay to shape the form.

I also reduce the material in clay to get the same form.

exploring different materials

After doing so, I felt the volume didn't give as much information as the colors and the angular shape gave.

There was a repetitive pattern observed on the wings,

The claws also had a harmonic progression, the smaller those scales the more the flexibility.

though this wasn't a unique characteristic to only this bird, it was important to notice how the form perched and climbed.

The features and colors were very distinct to the form. In the following images contrast and textures can be observed. the features vary in shapes, they are smallest in the most moving part and longer in the stable parts.

In the next exploration, I made the form simpler by not giving the textures and keeping it flat and yet retaining the volume.

The next exploration was made by eliminating the volume completely.

Then I reduced the amount of paper I used little more and made few explorations.

What if I change the color of the strips of paper? Will they change how the for is perceived?

This exploration gets us close to the original form and also retains it's characteristics.

22 July 2020

After studying the form in 2D and 3D, I started with the abstraction. There were some key attributes to the form which could give the form its identity.

Contrast
Opposing
Fierce

I started with the view of the form which gave out maximum information about it and started exploring.

EXPLORATION NO. 1

In these explorations I played with lines, retaining the important ones and removing the non essential ones. In doing so I also varied the line weight to create emphasis.

In the above exploration it can be seen the red crest is an important characteristic of the form. Also reducing the lines in a way that the eye can complete the image by itself was also important.(Closure property)

EXPLORATION NO. 2

In this exploration I used geometric shapes to depict the form. By doing so i wanted to elevate the fierceness of the form.

In the above exploration I used straight lines and sharp shapes with mostly acute angles to get the fierceness.

But what if the shapes have curves? Will that make any different?

The shapes gave a better understanding compared to the previous explorations with sharp shapes. The fierceness was retained.

EXPLORATION NO. 3

Though the forms were giving the identity to the initial form but somehow the shapes seemed disconnected with the adjacent ones.

In the next exploration I wanted to bridge out the gap between different shapes and give a sense of belonging to them, to add a harmony.

EXPLORATION NO. 4

In the next exploration I used lines to make the form,

Straight lines are used initially and distance is increased between the adjacent lines. I wanted to see how much distant lines can still be recognizable.

Sense of depth can be added if curves are made instead of straight lines, it's interesting to note how this can changes the flatness.

EXPLORATION NO. 5

What if the shapes are colored ? How big of a change can it give to the form as a whole?

Starting with the first form towards the geometric ones..

After this I felt that the connection still needs to be made with the adjacent shapes. They lacked harmony.

EXPLORATION NO.6

So I tried exploring more bringing the different shapes in harmony. The opposing nature of the form comes from the two opposing angular shapes. Giving flat colors to the form enhances it.

Exploration 6(a)

Exploration 6(b)

Exploration 6(c)

Exploration 6(d)

Exploration 6(e)

Exploration 6(f)

Exploration 6(g)

Exploration 6(h)

Exploration 6(i)

23 JULY 2020

Continuing the explorations, the above view was interesting as the fierceness factor increased many fold.

EXPLORATION NO. 7

The explorations done for the previous view are repeated. Are observations same?

Reducing the lines to the point where the insignificant ones are eliminated and the form still show the attributes we began with.

EXPLORATION NO. 8

The last exploration seems lost, the space in the lines fails to convey the from properly.

Making the curves gives a sense of belonging to the form and closure and proximity property works well the form even after having elements far from each other still seems to belong together.

EXPLORATION NO. 9