As regulars will know I have contributed in the past to the Facebook page `Painting Colorful Birds for Fun'. This was initiated by the artists Robin Berry and Gerard Hendriks. Up to three months ago I made several contributions, some better than others. With all the trauma (I promise I shall stop referring to this as it is becoming tedious) of selling and buying houses, and finally moving to a new home, my painting suffered badly, mostly by not happening. I can't afford to slip back too much as it remains poised on a knife edge. Finally the `studio' is almost complete - just a few things to refine it - so I want to get back to painting and/or drawing at least three sessions per week. The following birds are the result of a drawing I made over three months ago and I can't even remember what species they are, other than being exotic. The subject at the AVA meeting last week was `A Misty Day, and as usual I finished early. As I had brought the bird drawing with me I painted it in the remaining 30 minutes.
16" x 12" Gerstaeker No.3 90lb Not
The paper is a cheap cellulose one from Great Art but is okay for this type of study, although better quality paper usually improves (not always!) the result. As you can see the birds are very colourful with presumably male and female represented. Blues were Teal Blue (Daniel Smith PG50) and Cerulean (Rowney PB35). The greens are mainly Hookers (Graham) and a little Sap Green also Graham.. Ivory Black features as does Quinacridone Gold (Daniel Smith) and Raw Sienna (W & N) I'm not sure which red I used but the purple is a mixture of Moonglow (DS) and red. Not great but a step in my `comeback'.
Brushes were the usual Escoda retractable Kolinskys plus the Isabey retractable Size 6.