Watercolor Wednesday in October

“She offered me a hummingbird” again

Finally finished this last 6 x 6 for our local art association fundraiser. This one was important for me to get right because it faithfully reproduces the layout, colors and feel of the actual event.

When the visitor offered me the bird, it was in her hand extended forward to me. The bird was in this posture – wings stretched back into a V and head slightly raised.

I used two reference photos. The hummingbird came from Unsplash, it was taken by B Hong. I rotated his image until it had the posture I remembered in the live bird.

The hand model was me again. I chose a bright sunny day and held a button in my palm to try to recreate the shadows.

It was enough for me to get the idea. When I needed help, I took the painting to Open Studio today for advice on attaining better shadows. Cheryl Bryan was there. She advised me that I should not try to match the photograph. Softening the shadows and allowing a little space between the palm and the bird made for a better painting. Then I kept darkening and tweaking everything until a good range of values was present. I finished the details with white gouache and a few colors of Micron pens.

For those interested, my pigments are raw sienna, transparent orange, Winsor green blue shade, Winsor green yellow shade, carbazole violet, Paynes gray and white gouache.