This painting is being posted out of sequence. That’s the hazard of being behind. After a series of highly designed paintings and several medial animations for clients, I was desperate to get something on the drafting table quickly so I could start painting again. I rifled through my sketchbooks to see what was ready to go. Over the past few years, I’ve invested a lot of time in detailed backgrounds and have avoided more straightforward images such as simple bird portraits and “bird-on-a-stick” paintings with uncomplicated backgrounds. Strangely, the simpler paintings tend to be among the more viewed images in terms of web hits, so maybe I’m wasting my time? In general, I prefer seeing more elements on the page. I find them more intriguing compositionally. I’m mostly painting for my own entertainment, so I might as well keep “me” happy.
Of course, when I’m under a time crunch, simple portraits and backgrounds are much more appealing! So when I came across the sketches I did from my photos of a Wilson’s Snipe at MSU’s banding station, I thought it was the perfect candidate for a “quick” painting. Strangely, snipes are not typically found at that banding station, which is in a wooded location. My reference had a lot of blurred out trees. They were nice shots but not typical habitat for a snipe. I chose to put in a smooth, blurry pink to purple-gray fade to suggest some atmosphere while also allowing for some interesting interplay with all of the tans, browns and blacks of the bird.
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