Blue-winged Warbler Transparent Watercolor and Time-lapse Video

A simple, fast painting of a Blue-winged Warbler seemed like the way to go after my last big painting of orchids, which had tons of detail.

A piece of advice that I always give aspiring artists is to work on your weaknesses. After 25+ years of illustrating professionally, I still find plenty of areas that I need to polish. Watercolor has a reputation as a beginners’ medium, but in actuality it is difficult to “tame.” For this piece I wanted to hold back on the level of detail. My goal was a super-soft background like ones I used to create with an airbrush, but with the detail receding as the branches move into the distance. That isn’t the easiest task in watercolor, so it was a good challenge. I also don’t use pastel shades much, so I thought it would be a fun change of pace.

I really love these beautiful little guys with their cheery “bee buzz” call. I don’t recall seeing many of them back in New York and New Jersey. Here in Michigan they pop up a fair amount, but I haven’t seen quite as many locally over the past few years. They used to be regulars on my mountain bike route, but that particular part of the trail has changed a lot, and they seem to have picked other areas to breed. In the spring and summer I used to hear them calling all the time as I’d zoom along the trails. In the spring I always pocket a set of old Minolta mini binoculars in case I hear anything interesting on the ride. Once migration is over I tend to eject that extra weight so I can go a little faster and work on my Strava times.

Those ancient Minoltas are pretty awful now. They’re beaten up and have fungus growing in them, but I saw so many great birds with them that they will always have a special place in my memory. Since they are small, I used to carry them almost everywhere. Years ago when the kids were super young, I let my son use them, and they were briefly introduced to Lake Erie. Oops! Things happen. After an exhaustive disassembly, drying, lubrication and reassembly, they were functional again. It’s a great thing for a kid to have a pair of binoculars that are small, light and affordable enough to be replaceable. Our kids didn’t have fancy optics when they were small, but they had functional hand-me-downs that fueled their love of birds and other animals.

I often see lists of binocular recommendations for kids, and they are always more expensive than most people can reasonably afford, especially parents whose kids are interested though they are not. While a bird nerd parent might not mind dropping a few hundred dollars on field glasses, your average Joe might prefer not to. Those lists always skip the compact binocular styles. I agree that they aren’t ideal for seasoned users, but small kids don’t like having heavy things strapped around their necks. Even though a set of 8×40 or 8×30 porro prisms are easy to use, they are definitely big and heavy. If a kid won’t carry them around, such binocs are useless. Most compacts are lightweight and can be adjusted to fit small faces. I also think you need to factor in the possibility of losing them completely, either on a hike or in a pond, river or ocean, so being able to replace them is pretty important. While the compact pairs are lousy in low light, that complaint was seldom voiced by our kids.