Painting a Golden-winged Warbler in Transparent Watercolor

Warblers are among my favorite birds. Their bright colors, interesting behaviors and varied calls are really appealing. Anytime I see a Golden-winged Warbler, I get excited. They aren’t super common in our part of Michigan and are only around for a few weeks of the year, which makes getting good photos difficult.

This painting was based on some shots of a Golden-winged that I took locally. The main image had a lot of problems, including a stick right in front of the bird’s face. Also, the highest area of contrast was a different branch cutting the frame almost in half. Loads of problems, but many opportunities to reinvent and make something new.

Compositionally, I used many of the elements that were in my original photo but moved them around a lot. I zoomed in on the bird and cleared up the background right behind it so it would pop out more from the background. I also moved many of the branches and lowered their contrast so they would be less dominant. Finally, my photo had been taken around noon, resulting in harsh lighting and strong shadows, so I decided to soften those up significantly.