A Watery White-throated Sparrow

This is the same White-throated Sparrow that showed up in painting 127, but here he's flown to a sparser tree (instead of the tangle of branches), and he is perched high above me...looking down. It was an interesting sight because he was still puffed up for maximum heat insulation and could barely see over his fluffy chest and belly feathers. Snow had not accumulated on these unprotected branches, and the clouds were getting darker. Although I painted the branches tight, I decided to make the bird and sky watery and loose.

Painting 128. White-throated Sparrow in Winter

(Watercolor, 12x16 Arches Cold Pressed 140 lb Paper)

I painted the background with a single wash alternating between Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna (Daniel Smith watercolors). Working quickly, I used a watery brush with a heavy pigment load, going back and doting in pure color here and there to get the rolling cloud movement. If I had not masked out the bird and branches, it would have been much harder to achieve this result because I would have had to slow down and cut around the bird and branches. (I had already started to paint the branches before I thought about a scan to show the masked-out bird! :-)

Pencil sketch of the White-throated Sparrow

I didn't need much detail for this sketch because I knew I was going to make the bird watery and impressionistic.

Last year at this time I was only working on painting 17, so I'm 11 paintings ahead--yeah! If I have any free time, I'm up in the art room painting, and of course, if I'm waiting in the car or at on of Matty's practices, I'm sketching or painting. All the extra sketching time is really helping. I'm so glad I'm not afraid to paint and sketch in public any more.