Hummer

This little "Ruby Red" hummer was at a flower in my garden. How can I scale the hummer to appear the tiny size which it is in the universe? Consider exaggerating the objects around the hummer. Good theater employers exaggeration by each actor. Your painting is no different-it tells a story!  

Painting Birds on location!

This little snipe sat while I drove by turned around and parked nearby. I knew by then I had time to paint her if she was not fazed. Try it you'll have fun and time painting birds on location!

Two watercolors-compare!

Here is the same watercolor at two different stages. First stage is a study of Juncos. I look at the watercolor and for what is missing: The signature "hood"! After adding it I put the birds in context-they feed on the ground. Don't stop too soon, check for errors and add context!

Every time I revisit this watercolor of a bohemian waxwing, I see the live bird in my mind. It was winter and I was skiing and landed about five feet from the perched, breathing waxwing and my reaction was to reach over and stroke its back. The feathers and colors were so stunningly smooth. Painting the bird in my studio was easy but then it wasn't the real thing! After revisiting this painting for fifteen years, I realize it is real! It is my experience and I can see that experience with this image. Don't forget to paint!

What makes a landscape painting no a portrait painting? Context! How is that painted?
A portrait calls for one object/person/bird to be more important than the other objects. Biophilia claims all animals are important! How can one have a "center of interest" if one object does not stand out?
Space is the answer! The space between is the cohesion ecologist's talk about and landscape painters present. Simply put a branch in front of the bird and it makes it a landscape. Try it!

Why are watercolors hard? Because the painter is out of sequence. I brush in the "sunlight" at the beginning, then I had the bright colors and also the beautiful colors that I see.
Then I frame these colors with darks: really black but I mix my black or use indigo from the tube. If the bird is dark then the background is light. I'm finished when the darks set off the lights!

How does a painter make something look real? Is it color? The shape? Darks and lights? Brushstrokes? Or all of the above. Lets look at these birds: what is in front of them and behind them? Nature is about things interfering with another thing and painters call this shapes and space. Brushstrokes that make a shape all at once(one sweep of the brush) is what nature does-its there! Try these tricks to make your paintings more "real".

Today I am posting the watercolor version of the Goldfinches. Yesterday I posted an oil and challenged my self to paint the intensity of the oil paints.
One great American painter, Edgar Payne,  is known to have lamented that our paints are 400 times less intense than nature.
If you don't like your painting then add more color!

This is an oil painting not watercolor! But my challenge today is to replicate this painting in watercolors.
Students come to my classes and have chosen one medium or another for all kinds of reasons- toxicity, ease of painting, ease of clean-up, beauty of the finished painting and more.
I believe painting is painting and the different qualities of each medium are not so different.
Setting a goal is a powerful incentive. Try setting a goal!

Ruby Throated Hummers are very colorful and extremely hard to see unless they sit and turn into the sun. I reference a birding guide book for colors which I should try to see. Then when I paint, I use saturated colors-deep rich colors on the dark side to replicate the intensity of what I see. Try it!

Here is my granddaughter's watercolor of me!
There is a bird nest and bluebird bring food to the nest and I am in the middle of the action, on a sunny day birdwatching.
If birdwatching lets my granddaughter paint the story, isn't it all important: painting, kids and birds!
If you paint you will inspire others.

Remember those paintings that didn't mean much when you painted them? I found this gem in my file and my adventures on Hog Island in ME last summer flooded into the present. What duck was it? I'll find it in the bird book just as I would find the real duck, but the experience is what its really is about!

This is not a new watercolor but one I discovered in my archives-so timely for spring. The wood thrushes are out and about Vermont woods and by streams.
Are you having trouble seeing this bird? I did when I was ten feet away from the actual nest and bird. I painted what I saw and let the image be.
Paintings are about so much more than one person can imagine and wasting time figuring out if it is a good painting totally misses the point. Keep paintings to tell you more each time you see it.

"Western Bluebird" 4"x6"

Spring is coming and painting outdoors gives credence to any watercolor. Those painters painting outdoors who decide that a painting is not good enough and bring it home to "finish" are losing the painting's immediacy!
All painters whether experienced or beginner have a vision and an idea of what they will paint-matching that vision is very hard. And in the mean time look at what you already have-a fresh exciting painting. Stop and smell the roses on the path to paint just your vision.

Here is a quick study of Cinnamon Teals. As I painted the watercolor on a post-card size sheet of paper, my fellow painters pointed out how important the relationships of head size to tail length was...they "knew" the watercolor was wrong! You know it too, so keep adjusting proportions till it reads right! Just keep going and you will get it.

Watercolors are wonderful because with a few strokes of complimentary colors, juxtaposed on white paper, the medium makes a compelling painting. The birds flit through winter with confidence and painters that show confidence are appreciated also. It makes us want to take a new deep breath and look at winter again.

Why does a painting express so much? What does an artist do to make it so expressive? Questions all artist's wish they had a concrete answer for. The one answer I live by is having something in front of or behind all things: breaking a plane in art terms. Would this bird be so connected to us if the branch in front were removed? Nature is nothing if not about connections. By showing the bird in the tree we remove the angst of isolating the bird. So we see it as simply "there." Breaking a plane is the simplification that works every time!

This quick watercolor of a Harris' Hawk shows the energy of the real hawk. Painter's that want to show what it "looks like" often concentrate too much on the surface and not the internal qualities of their images. Brushstrokes that are loose and expressive help determine the feel of a watercolor. Even original brushstrokes under the final brushstrokes help the viewer "see" the animal and allows the viewer to bring what they know to an image. It is the reason we connect to art!

This fledgling I assume is a ruby-throat because I live in Vermont. I find the energy of the bird as interesting as the coloring and brushstrokes can help explain motion.
What is the essence of the bird for you? Their shape can be very contorted when they reach up to the bird feeder, but this pose is restful.
Painting birds is a challenge!