Yellow Headed Blackbird

Here's the other painting I've been working on in class this fall. I've always wanted a painting of a Yellow-Headed Blackbird.

When we were kids we spent summers at Lake Poinsett in South Dakota. The Yellow Headed Blackbirds hung out in the swamps near the lake. Grandma always looked for them when she came to stay with us.

So, here's my version. I think it's almost done, but will have to see when I go to class on Tuesday. This painting is 12x16 in acrylic. It started out with a very pale background, which was too pasty looking. I changed it to pond colors.

Cousins Painting Reworked

I'm taking a painting class again this fall. I took in my summer painting from the old snapshot and got some good ideas for making the background better.

I repainted the house and the window reflections. My teacher noticed the house eave in the window reflection on the original photo, so I added that. He also pointed out that all of my background house and ground textures were the same style and were too bright. They needed to be grayed down a bit, cleaned up, and shadows defined.

I retouched the figures too. I think this is getting better and almost done now. Although, seeing this on the screen, I realize that the clouds and the tip of the building corner all converge in the window reflection...I'll probably have to fix that. This is 16x20" in acrylic.

Here's the original photo: