Painting a wren

I am so enjoying painting the wildlife in the changing seasons. I walk up our lane and see robins on fence posts and little wrens hopping about in the undergrowth. Now I don't pretend to paint from memory but I look at photos and watch as much as I can when I am out in the countryside

The first thing to do is always get a good sketch.

Then I start to think about the eye. I treat the eye as the most important part of the painting. The part I spend the longest on. I Paint this part very very carefully, and get looser and looser as I move through the painting,

I use very small brushes

I make sure I preserve a tiny dot of light.I look and look and look again until I know what I am going to do. I love painting eyes as once they are done I know what my animal's character is.

Know I can get more free. I look where I want the  lights and darks, the  hard and soft edges. Then I just get stuck in...

I continue on until I feel the bird is alive. I like to splash the paint around at the end and even spray some water on the paper. I want the bird to look real, and finish off with some white acrylic.