FEMALE CARDINAL

Building layers on the bird.  Also did the beak in cad. red with some alizarin in it.  Added some yellow ochre at the tip and then decided it should be brighter so I added azo yellow.  I think it gave it a transparent feel.  The wing tips I used a very diluted maroon perylene and ultramarine....later I will do some negative painting in that area and deepen it.

Female Cardinal Painting

Starting a cardinal painting.  I liked this picture because of the lighting.  I will post the photo so you can see it.  The background is painted wet in wet.  I used a very concentrated mix of maroon perylene and ultramarine blue.  I also used ultramarine while continuing down the picture.  Then adding the dark into it.  I used raw sienna in the lower left corner and then spattered the picture with it and with the dark.  I spattered a little towards the top with the maroon very diluted.  When that dried I started working on the bird.  I started wet in wet everything above the perch.  I put yellow ochre lightly throughout the bird and very lightly near the belly where it's lighter.  Pay particular attention to leave  a little white space on the top of her head....that will give a nice backlit effect.  I used some burnt sienna to put the sienna tones in the upper breast area.  While it's all still wet I also added cadmium red within the sienna a little and adding it to the tip of the head and around the eye.  I mixed sap green and a little cad red together and worked that into the head area.  The deep violet mix that I used for the background, I also used for the dark around the beak area.  I also used it for the dot of the eye.
I dried everything and then reworked those same colors over again, keeping the breast area the original wash color and trying not to go into it too much.  I did use a little wash of azo yellow or winsor yellow around the breast area to brighten it up a bit.  More later.

I changed the background to include more texture and not make it quite so dark.

ALL PRE-PEAR-ED Finished Painting

Shadows

Before painting the plaid it's important to put in the shadows in the cloth first.  I used ultramarine, a little alizarin and a little azo or winsor yellow.  Working wet in wet just in the section you are working in.....you don't need to wet the whole cloth.  Make sure you don't make the shadows too dark....some areas are very subtle.

Pear Still Life continued.....

Almost done.....have to still add the edging to the dish towel and deepen the shadow reflections on the table.   I used these colors to make the plaid in the cloth.  Green - sap and a little alizarin crimson, Blue - verditer blue or cobalt if you don't have that, and cadmium yellow light for the yellow stripes.  Where the green stripes are in the shadow I added a little cobalt to it.  I added yellow to the green where it got a little more light on it.