Concentration

This piece was an experiment with acrylics. I don't usually wok with acrylics because I don't know very many techniques or ways to make it look good so i just wanted to see how I would do. This was also my last piece in my concentration series. Again another bird on a branch. I think colored pencils were easier to control but the acrylics were easy to blend and easier to clean up mistakes as I made many. This piece was derived from a photograph I found on the internet. I kept the colors pretty true to the actual image as well as keeping the branch and most details of the bird. I used many techniques to achieve the right textures of the body  On the head, I kind of dabbed the paint brush to achieve a more rough texture but with the belly of the bird, I used smoother brush strokes.  I tried to add different colors of orange and browns to the belly so it wasn't just one flat color. (very hard to see in the photograph) The branch was the hardest part of this painting. The colors just didn't seem to match up or work together. Trying to add highlights and lowlights ended up being very difficult. If I did this piece again, i might want to try watercolor or colored pencil