Montezuma Quail – gouache, watercolour, pen, coloured pencil

Venezia Sketchook 9×6″; Fabriano Accademia 200gsm; Faber-Castell artist pen; DS watercolour paints; W&N gouache, Prismacolor coloured pencils.

• to add the feet, or not add the feet;
•  watercolour over pen dulls the black (but the scale is too small to show the colour effects of overlapping translucent feathers);
• laying down watercolour then over-painting with gouache for stronger darks;
• realistic pattern, or suggestion of pattern;
• conceding to bird enthusiasts: differentiating between different feather types in the wings – rather like the ‘secret code’ of defining boney landmarks in figure drawing (whether they are actually visible or not);
• watercolour and gutters (!);
• format size – need to work larger and more freely (ready to upgrade to an 8×11″ Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media journal – ostensibly for gouache (and extras), while Moleskine Folio Watercolour works for watercolour proper);
• since I’m not American, there is an enjoyable (cultural) ‘distance’ between me and the subject – an entirely different proposition if it was an Australian bird;
• the splendid ‘artificiality’ of bird portraits made many times bigger than life-size;
• absolutely no intention of mirroring reality – nature photography does that: no, my bird portraits are self-portraits of the artist.