Here is the second bird brought mostly to completion. I wanted to do quite a lot of work to the two birds before going back into the rest of the painting. Following on from here, I'll continue adding details to the weathered planks they were sitting on and trying to get a balance between the sunlit wood and the shadows, trying all the while to judge the correct balance of light on the scene. Hopefully I should wrap this one up relatively quickly as I have so many other paintings to get to.
After collecting quite a lot of references of Barn Swallows (mostly in my sketchbook), I decided to do a larger watercolor of a pair of them resting on the old dock. We don't usually see swallows on the ground so I felt this would make for a slightly more interesting painting. I wanted the birds in full sun which would I hoped, bring out the best in their plumage. The iridescent blue on the head and back looks dark in shadow but amazingly jewel-like in the sunlight. Since my earlier color studies were done in watercolor, I decided to do this one in the same medium but using transparent watercolor without any gouache - any white highlights would be pure paper showing through. My initial effort on the nearest bird was close to how I wanted it so I then worked on the background for a bit. Next I'll make a start on the second bird sitting slightly behind. I'm sure I will come back to this first swallow and do a bit more but for now, I'm happy with how things look and feel that I have at least made a reasonable start.
Mute Swans are not that common over here although I do see the odd individual from time to time. One was resident at a nearby lake for some time so I did manage quite a lot of studies etc. The bird I have painted here is half asleep while standing on one leg. I actually prefer to draw them when they are laying down as this means that the body is slightly more horizontal and seems to aid the composition. I started an oil study of a swan some time ago but have yet to finish it. This is mostly because of the texture of the neck feathers - I am having a hard time capturing that area to my satisfaction. I'll try and get back to it soon as the rest of the painting is going quite well. This small watercolor done in my sketchbook is around 5 x 7 inches (12 x 18 cm).
One of the first things I do when waking each morning is to observe the sky. A window slightly angled to the East allows me a quick look to see if there are any interesting clouds about and how this will affect the sunrise. Often I have been able to do smaller (and necessarily) quick studies of what I see looking out. Usually these paintings are in watercolor but occasionally oil. When working in oils, I have to have everything set up and ready to go as often the sky changes rapidly. The other morning when I did these studies in my sketchbook (the lower one first), I was trying to capture not only the colors but also the feeling of the clouds especially as they changed shape. Fortunately on that morning, they only did slowly as there wasn't much wind. These studies are especially important to me as they not only capture what I saw on any given day, they also give me a better idea if the arrangement of light, color and clouds can be scaled up for a larger painting. Size of each are around 5 x 7 inches.
