This is a 7 x 10-inch transparent watercolor painting of a Pine Siskin on Arches 140lb hot pressed paper. I’ve had this sketch sitting around for a while and thought it would be fun to paint. I’ve always loved Pine Siskins, and even though it’s not unheard of to get them at our thistle feeders, it always adds a little excitement to the day when they show up. Historically, Pine Siskins were winter visitors to our Mid-Michigan location. The past few years we have been keeping them well into May. I love hearing their cool ZWEEE!!! call when I head outside.
This painting had some surprising challenges. There is a lot of subtlety to the subdued colors and streaking on these guys. My backyard photo reference was a bit contrasty and had some shadows crossing over the bird. Additionally, I altered the colors of the background a bit to make it more interesting, which made getting the shadow colors on the bird’s belly more difficult. In the end I brought in a lot of blue greens as reflected color to shade those areas, and it rounded out the bird.
Another issue I had with the painting was that I rushed into it. In hindsight I wish I had spent more time sketching and getting a composition that I was happier with. I was between two illustration projects and was in a bit of a hurry to get a painting going. I now think the top of the painting is a bit boring compared to the bottom. It would’ve been nice to bring in some more blossoms at the top to balance things out and break up the sky and trunk of the tree a bit more.
On the positive side I am happy with the looser, out of focus bottom of the painting. I learned some lessons working on this painting, so even if it isn’t an all-time favorite, I’ll still score it as a win.
Every artist I know can point out at least one flaw per completed project. It is a curse. Nothing is ever perfect. It is the same with musicians who can tell you every dropped note or slight break in tempo. I suppose the thing is to not linger on the flaws but learn from them. There are paintings I’ve done that I don’t have many complaints about.
Usually the issues are small, but with watercolor, you can’t really edit things and revise like you might with oils or acrylics. Scrubbing out and painting over typically makes a horrid mess. That is the charm and the hazard of watercolor.
Occasionally things have bothered me for years about a painting I’ve otherwise liked. I once pulled a watercolor of a Great Blue Heron out of its frame in order to rework the background, since it had always bothered me. I figured I’d win either way. Either I’d make it much better and get to enjoy it or ruin it completely and not have to look at the bad background ever again. Despite the risk, I was happy I did it, as it is still hanging in the house, now greatly improved.
Sometimes the problems with a painting aren’t entirely your own fault. Years ago I had a pet parrot that spent most of his life sitting on my shoulder. I loved that bird. He had an annoying habit of chewing on the edges of paper, and apparently watercolor paper had a perfect feel to his beak. I have a few sketches and paintings with chewed-off edges. Worse yet, he relieved himself on one or two almost finished paintings. That’s not as much of a problem if you have a greenish camouflaged blurry background, but if you have a nice smooth sky with a “splat” in the middle of it… well, that painting will stay in the archives. Maybe he was an art critic?!
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