I was trying to think of a good bird for Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, I don’t have any turkeys and this Sharp-tailed Grouse is one of the few gamebirds I’ve done. Looks like I have a hole in the portfolio to fill.
These are beautiful birds with spectacular, complicated plumage. From a distance they are perfectly camouflaged. Each feather seems to have a complex pattern of brown, tan, white, rust and black. The Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto has many great exhibits. I spent a few days sketching there years ago. In one display case they has this male bird doing it’s mating dance. It really caught my eye, so I did a detailed drawing on site. I could really see it making a great painting.
With transparent watercolor, if you see white, it is the white of the paper. That means that you have to paint around all those little white dots, streaks and highlights in the eyes, painting everything else around it, keeping the paper pristine. This was a tough assignment, but not quite as hard as the Common Loon I did a while back. If you are going to do transparent watercolor you can’t be afraid of a challenge!
Prints are available here.
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