Wanting to do a painting for a frame that I had lying around, I chose this portrait of a young Bald Eagle as my subject. Since the image would be quite small, I decided to concentrate on the head and shoulders of the bird. Using a smooth paper, I built up a series of washes for the background then started on the head. Usually I paint in the eyes first. If I can get these to look right, the rest of the painting follows along nicely (mostly)! I then continued onto the beak and finally the rather intricate plumage. Nearly all the head feathers were pale tipped so I tried to capture this feature in my painting. Finally after quite a lot of work, I felt that I had captured the essence of this very impressive bird and declared the work finished. Size is 7 x 5 in (18 x 13 cm), watercolor on Arches hot-pressed paper.
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