DEMONSTRATIONI had enough rays happening, I made random sun dappled
spots with the same sponge by rotating it in circles.
This drastic measure had succeeded in lightening
up the work and putting me back on track.
I replaced a little colour back into the rays
and the spots with some light washes.
I still hadn’t decided for certain what the birds were going
to be eating. I didn’t want to paint the Queen Palms from my
reference photographs as I had recently become aware that
there is some concern about the birds spreading these exotic
species, and I did not want to appear to be celebrating that fact.
I didn’t really want to paint any flora at all. I didn’t want any
delicate plant details to distract from the boldness of the birds.
STEP FOUR
While I was still in the ‘loose’mood, I decided to go for some
abstract foliage. I mixed some green from the Phthalo Blue and
Cadmium Yellow and added a little Magenta to Crimson for
the red – and proceeded to randomly splash in some foliage.
I also splashed a little yellow and blue here and there.
Once I had enough colour, I touched the red areas lightly
with the sponge to form ‘gum blossom type’splotches.
STEP FIVE
I brought back my three middle birds. I decided to
reposition the centre one a little closer to the lower
pair, and also added some detail to the red splotches
to give more of a suggestion of gum blossoms.
At this point I hung the canvas on my dining room wall. My
mum (who is not an artist, but has a good eye for colour and
co-ordination) came to visit and we assessed the painting together.
She commented that the pink on the bottom right was too eye
catching; and I was not happy with the bird left of the centre.
I agreed that the pink – although I loved the
colour – was not really present in the birds,
and it disturbed the overall colour unity.
To address the pink problem, I placed a light yellow
wash across the top section and a blue wash over the
lower part. This subdued the Magenta without eradicating
it completely. I also added a hint of Magenta to the gum
blossoms. I searched through my reference photographs
for a bird to replace the one I was not happy with.
FINAL STEP
Reaching once more for my damp sponge, I scrubbed out
the offending bird. I decided on a replacement specimen that
was facing the camera, with a lot of underbelly showing. This
allowed me to introduce some Magenta toning into the bird
which helped unify the colours. I felt the new bird really brought
everything together – both colour wise and compositionally.
I decided to make the newcomer the focal point
- so I paid more attention to his face and gave
it sharper detail than the other birds. O