Here the painting has some simple washes added, mostly to the upper part of the head. At this time I'm trying to define the basic shapes and get a feel for how the painting is going to progress. For the darker areas, I used raw umber, for the lighter, raw sienna. A mix of Cadmium yellow and Cadmium red was laid in to the eyes but I realised that they would have to be a lot darker and also be slightly more of a reddish-orange. A few thin washes of Cerulean blue were used for the bill. I then went back into the darker areas with more raw umber but this time working on the edges of the feathers making sure they were done in a way to look light and soft. Although there is not much pigment on the paper at this point, I feel that I am off to a good start. I am especially careful in the beginning while working on watercolors as a mistake can be very costly later on so I tend to keep things light until I can see that the painting is starting to work.
Spring break upon us
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I have a few days off coming up… Lots of this species around now. These
photos are from near my apartment this morning. I also saw Blue-and-white
Flycatche...
6 hours ago