Female Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle Warbler) Transparent Watercolor and Time-lapse Video

Female Yellow-rumped Warbler (10 x 7 inch transparent Watercolor on Arches 140lb HP Paper) — Female Yellow-rumped Warbler (10 x 7-inch transparent Watercolor on Arches 140lb HP Paper)

Female Yellow-rumped Warbler (detail from 10 x 7 inch transparent Watercolor on Arches 140lb HP Paper) — Female Yellow-rumped Warbler (detail from 10 x 7-inch transparent Watercolor on Arches 140lb HP Paper)

I tried not to overwork this painting and wanted to leave things a bit looser on the bird than I might normally do. My photo reference from a trip to Ohio was contrasty. I ended up softening the lighting a lot.

I decided that female Yellow-rumps are harder to paint than the males… well at least if you are reinventing the lighting of the entire scene! As I looked at tons of my photos of female yellow-rumps, the more I became aware at how much variety their mid-tone colors seem to take on. Sometimes it looks soft brown, and sometimes it looks blue-gray or olive-tinted. I was as sick as a dog while working on this painting. In the end, I just decided to have fun with it and make the bird work with the background, rather than sweating out the most realistic possible color of the bird.

Please contact me if you’re interested in buying the original watercolor or a print of this painting. Some of my work is also available for licensing.