More Hoodies...

Painting 117, Hooded Warbler After the Storm

Watercolor, 12x16 Arches Cold Pressed 140 lb Paper

Painting 117, Hooded Warbler After the Storm, grew out of Painting 116 (below) and Painting 115 (the previous post). In 116 I was trying to figure out the bird's posture. Since I didn't have a reference photo I knew I had to create another practice piece to test out what was in my head. After I finished the practice oil pastel and went back to study it, I could see I needed to make a few changes before I started the watercolor. I changed the position of the bill and the wing, enlarged his eye (Hooded Warblers have the largest eyes of all the Wood Warblers), flattened out his head a bit, tightened up the angle down his back a little...then changed the position of his bib and filled out his chest too, but I liked the rest of the pose so I stuck pretty closely with the position of the tail and legs. I'm glad I did the oil pastel as a practice because it was fun and let me see what worked and what didn't. I used the same watercolor techniques in painting 117 as I did in painting 115 (the 7x10 practice watercolor of the Hooded Warbler). I'm glad I did that practice painting too because I learned so much from it. I used a lot more wet on wet with the leaves in this painting, and I like these leaves better than those in 115. Painting the Hooded Warblers of Shawnee State Park has been a huge learning process!

Painting 116, Hooded Warblers...Thank Goodness They Sing Loudly

Watercolor, 12x16 Arches Cold Pressed 140 lb Paper

Before I started painting 117, I played around with this one. I chose oil pastels because you can scribble, scribble, and scribble some more. They are freeing and fun...and super messy, which can also be fun. I wanted some green energy floating around in my head before I started the more complicated watercolor, and this painting did the trick. All of the practice paintings and pencil sketches really help...

...does this guy look familiar to you? I did a similar painting for the challenge last year (Painting 84, Hooded Warbler in the Deep Woods, Come Out and Sing so I can Find You!). Painting 116 will work as a companion piece to that painting. When I looked at that painting, I could see I gave him a bill that was too long, so that helped me draw these birds with shorter bills...everything is an evolution...