Birds of the Everglades Transparent Watercolor and Time-lapse

There is no way around it: this painting took an incredibly LONG time! This 18×24-inch transparent watercolor features 25 birds found in Everglades National Park. I hatched the idea for this after our family trip to the Everglades last winter. As is typical with these elaborate compilations of numerous animals, it took a few days just to come up with a composition that I thought would 1) work well and 2) be worthy of the huge amount of time it would take to complete it. Most paintings have areas with less detail, but every square inch of these is covered with detailed work. I even wore out two #2 round brushes on this one! Though these 18×24-inch watercolors look decent on larger monitors, you really need to see them at full size to appreciate the work that went into them.

When painting something so complex with so much detail, the real challenge is creating a convincing spatial relationship. It would be pretty easy to cut out birds from previous paintings and simply combine them into a digital collage in Photoshop. For me, however, the real art lies in designing the piece to maximize the interplay of shapes and color, and the real test comes when trying to paint everything on one page and have it all work together. Ultimately, I think that each of my “critters” paintings is about movement and patterns of color and texture. In a way they are abstract paintings made of real-world objects.

People occasionally say that my watercolors look like photos. I think that’s intended as a compliment, but it definitely isn’t my goal. I want them to look like paintings. I like seeing the pigments and brushstrokes here and there. Also, I’m not always 100% literal with color, and I like to keep my shadows full of color. My first painting along these lines was from 1995 or so.

My last “critters” painting was licensed by Pomegranate to be made into a 500-piece puzzle (Whites and Blues), and I’ve heard people say that it’s pretty difficult for one that size. I think this new one would be a great challenge as well. 😉

So, who is actually featured in this painting? 

• Osprey (2)
• Great Egret (2)
• Double-crested Cormorant (3)
• Brown Pelican (2 adult, 2 immature)
• Yellow-throated Warbler (2)
• Palm Warbler (1)
• Great Blue Heron (1)
• Sandhill Crane (1)
• Yellow-crowned Night Heron (1)
• Purple Gallinules (8 with faces, 23 if you count the partial bodies)