Sparrow Watercolor Demo

Well I am finally closing the gap in painting the sparrow on the birdhouse. There still is so much to do but I believe the next phase will finish it so thought I should post. I still am trying to solve a few problems but believe the repetitive arrows bring the eye up to the bird nicely. The repetitive leaf shapes are working well and I am trying not to put any detail in them so that they are not too distracting. I have a headache from working on the bird feathers this afternoon so will stop for now. I still need to work with alot of the upper leaves but want them to be softer and the bird is not done yet but close...I hope I will love it when I am done because when you put so much time into them you want to like them! ha!    This watercolor is 22" x 16 1/2" and is all transparent watercolor. I am sorry it is slightly crooked but I think you still get the idea.

Watercolor Demo of Sparrow

Well, I decided to stick this up as maybe I will figure things out faster and then it will be done before you know it! ha! So before that happens I thought you would like to see what I am trying to decide. I again started at the bottom on the left side to bring in more make believe plants because I know that will work find there. What I am trying to do is close the gap on the area that I find could make or break the piece. Now if I were good at photoshop I would just try this out there but I do not know how to do that...so this is what I do...by looking at this area with everything around it I am coming to the conclusion that to bring in a blue sky might not be the best idea. I am thinking of just continuing into light greens...so that I do not bring in a new element to deal with...as I want the focus to remain on the bird and the house...so I think there has to remain a sameness to the background...no surprises back there to distract. A blue sky could draw the eye up and away so I will go slowly into this so that I can still change my mind but thought you might want to see what I am thinking. Remember, I do print these big and trust that no one is copying my work...it is copyrighted so be aware of that. By being larger you can more easily see what I am actually doing. So here is "Manzanita Resident" at this point.

Sparrow WIP

Slowly ever so slowly I am moving along on my watercolor of the sparrow and birdhouse. I hit a wall when I decided that I wanted to change my background. I had to really think about what I wanted and ended up making up this plant that sort of has a bamboo feel to it but think it gives some nice negative shapes because of the horizontal and vertical shapes. I will have alot of work ahead of me because I am not going for the values yet but rather just developing the shapes. Once I am happy with them I can darken etc...and also cast some areas back into shadow if that will help move the birdhouse forward. At least you can see I am finally moving forward with this and I sure hope it is the right decision. I am sorry it is now showing the white as true but I felt I needed to capture the picture regardless of the weather.

Deer in my Yard!

This small deer has been coming into our yard and has now found the birdseed right outside the window where I sit at the computer in my studio. I had to crawl out but my husband was able to get to his camera and shoot this. It is not perfect as the window frame gets in the way some but this is my little buddy! Thought you would enjoy seeing him! 
http://s601.photobucket.com/albums/tt94/w0aaa/?action=view¤t=MVI_1417.mp4

Manzanita Resident Watercolor

I thought I better post where I am because we have sunshine and we could lose that for the week! It is so bright out and the reflections off the snow are so blinding I did lose some color but this will give you an idea where I am at. At this point I am doing the unthinkable. I thought I would just have the bushes behind like planned but now I keep having visions of white dahlias and not sure I should do that but will have to at least consider it. I hate to change my mind as often I find it might not be as good...because you are altering things. I like a plan and sticking with it. I will complete the sparrow and then have a good look at this. The house is not done either but I like to add the darkest darks once I see how everything else looks. Hopefully by next weekend we will be alot closer to done when I post this watercolor. I took this picture in Manzanita, Oregon and have been calling it Manzanita Resident but not sure that will remain the title. Any thoughts? Thanks for peeking!

Birdhouse Watercolor

Happy New Year to everyone! I am doing my typical winter thing by being sick, having back problems etc...seeems to be my routine every winter! So I have been working more slowly but I am getting excited about this piece!
I believe I will be calling it Manzanita Resident or something like that. It is a weathered birdhouse with a sparrow on top. I have drawn most everything now except the background which I think will be just leaves but have had a few other thoughts so have left it open.
Right now I am just finding shapes for the most part. I have started some of the weathered paint and a couple of feathers but I like to find a little of everything before I continue on...I thought before I go any further you would like to see my project. I hope those of you who have been copying my work will realize that this is my copyright and that you should not be copying other peoples work. It is illegal. I am seeing knock offs of my work and I suspect I post these way too big for people to see how easy it would be to copy...but I am trusting you to be honest. If not then I will have to take other measures...so please be honest and do not copy what is not yours. Sorry but a few can ruin it for the many I guess.

I hope everyone is staying well and that the New Year brings all of us many blessings and much happiness!