Maniacal Belted Kingfisher

This male Belted Kingfisher lives on the patch of the Little Miami River I walk often. Every time I'm there, he screams his maniacal call up and down the river. After all these years I've only been able to get two decent photos of him, which I used as references for this painting.

Painting 102, Maniacal Belted Kingfisher

Watercolor heightened by pastel

9x12 Arches Cold Pressed 140 lb Watercolor Paper

The colorful pastel painting above started its life as the sedate watercolor painting below. Economy of brushstrokes was the theme of the watercolor because I wanted a change from the detail I had put into the Screech Owl. It was a fine painting, understated and watery, but it seemed too tame for our kingfisher's personality. I wrote about this guy in October of 2009, and from that text, "screams at unknown terrors" as he wings his way down the river, covers him very well, so I crazied the watercolor up a bit. I decided to include the original watercolor in the post because some may prefer it. In our house, Matty LOVES the colorful pastel, but Rick prefers the original watercolor. (I dig the pastel...)

Sedate Belted Kingfisher...

I scanned the watercolor just after I started to jazz it up. You can see the beginnings of the orange pastel. I also had added white acrylic to the sky to give the paper more tooth to hold the pastel.