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| Chipping Sparrows and Poke at Andorra Meadows Watercolor by Ken Januski |
The combination of difficulty getting ebird to acknowledge that Chipping Sparrows are at Andorra, now resolved, and a desire to continue to study local sparrows prompted this somewhat large watercolor. It is 12x16 inches on Arches 140# paper. I have to say I and this paper just don't get along this well. I always seem to get sloppy brushstrokes with it, though that could easily be my fault not the paper's.
Still I am fairly happy with the waterolor. One problem I run into with paintings like this is that in trying to orchestrate the entire painting I may inadvertenly change something in the main subject so that it is no longer as much of a definitive study as I'd like. I think the birds here stayed fairly accurate but I do wish I'd left most of the green out of the background. My point in doing this was to illustrate that chippers are here in winter, when most of the greenery isn't!! Well you always learn something.
I am trying to continue to work larger in watercolor. Sometimes you just need to do enough work that you start to get comfortable with it. I hope that will be the case with large watercolors. I'm completely enamored of them in the hands of some artists. For me my own still don't have the freshness that I'd like.
1 comment:
Yes, I agree Ken, your chipping sparrows are excellent. I always enjoy when they return in the spring. Perhaps, though, someday we'll be seeing them here year-round. Although given the weather the last two days, it is very wintry here!
Ellen
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