Red Bird Wednesday

It's a beautiful sunny spring day in Denver so a wintery cardinal study might be a bit of an odd choice for a painting today. But I really wanted to paint something bright red and I had the studio doors open to the backyard and could hear the vociferous songbirds (cardinals have about 12 songs, I read). 

And while owls (obviously!) are my personal favorite bird, my grandmother always loved cardinals and red, as I do, so that was additional inspiration for this little 8x10 cardinal oil painting study.  Did you know seven states have cardinals as the state bird? And this is a male of course because of the showy plumage.

I also knew it would be fun to play with the green complement as well as the red hue temperatures--balancing the warm and cool reds in this case. This study was painted with a limited oil palette of: Titanium White, Ultra Blue, Cerulean Blue (which I don't often use but thought I would use for my cool blue today since Thalo is sooo strong), Cad Red Light, Permanent Rose, and some Cad Yellow Medium.

To soften the edges I used a flat sable brush (rather than a stiffer oil bristle brush) which I don't always use either because I tend to loose some of my edges, but it's the perfect tool for for feathers and fur.

For more information about my classes and NEW Colorful Connections workshop please click on the Classes link on the top right. Have a wonderfully creative day!