Branching Out Bird

7x9 ink line and watercolor on sketchbook paper done last week with collage text used for a branch, etc. This sparrow is out to have a great time. I used grey fine liner pen by Winsor Newton to draw it and White Nights paints. COPYRIGHT Kay Smith 2025

Lonely Sparrow

8.5x5.5 watercolors on 80 lb sketchbook paper done over a week or so ago, a single sparrow by itself, lonely for some friends. I've used the same recent limited palette of Payne's Gray, Perylene maroon, and quinacridone gold. COPYRIGHT Kay Smith 2025

Birdwatch

7x9 watercolor and ink using White Nights paints and Micron 01 pen on 80 lb sketchbook paper done last week. Another imaginary pair of birds with not too much realism but just enough to say Spring is here. At least the cedar waxwing and common sparrow think so. COPYRIGHT 2025 Kay Smith

Friday Bluebird

6x4 watercolor using brush only, no pencil sketch first, done last month. Using no reference this bird was quickly put in wet on dry with a loaded round brush. COPYRIGHT 2022 Kay Smith

Inquisitive Sparrow

5.5x8.5 watercolor using White Nights paints done on last day of June; ref courtesy WetCanvas online challenge. This bird was done over a graphite sketch. COPYRIGHT 2022 Kay Smith

Brusho Sparrow

7x4 watercolor and Brusho wc crystals on 140 lb cold press Grumbacher paper done in the last couple of weeks. I used a stencil of a branch in the upper background then used Brusho for the brown marks on the sparrow for a different approach to bird art. COPYRIGHT 2022 Kay Smith

Branch Shadows

5.5x5.5 watercolor, acrylic, and white gel pen on Arteza 110 lb cold press paper done last week using stencils, pulled prints, and stamps except for the bird that was sketched in pencil first. In this imaginary composition we can imagine the bird being alone amongst the green foliage and shadows. COPYRIGHT 2021 Kay Smith

Fat Little Sparrow on Yupo

11x15 watercolor on Yupo done this week using a small figurine for a model.  Yupo is a synthetic paper that originated in Japan that was named Kimdura and was for printmaking.  Artists discovered its unique properies over a decade ago and it is fun to paint.Also since Tuesday I've posted daily works on Leslie Saeta's #30 paintingsin30days challenge she hosts annually on her blog Slices of Life you can see HERE.  So this one is the 5th painting in a row.  I paint daily anyway so the ability to do one per day is not difficult.
#30paintingsin30days
Image COPYRIGHT 2015 Kay Smith.

Summer Sparrow

12x9 watercolor, gouache and ink (Uniball pen) on Canson 140 lb wc paper done yesterday.  Using the paper as a backing sheet accounts for all the random color marks in the background.  I used a 3" sponge roller and ran turquoise blue gouache in vertical manner from top to bottom.  When dry, I drew the bird in with ink then added only part of its color markings plus the branch to complete the painting of the chipping sparrow.
Image COPYRIGHT 2015 Kay Smith.

Bird Shadow

8.5x5.5 watercolor and ink on paper done yesterday, drawn from a small bird figurine.  I had bought 4 different birds in various poses that I could use to draw.  I used neutral colors with this as the figurine is a pale light blue grey.  To me, it looks like a sparrow now.
Image COPYRIGHT 2015 Kay Smith.

BEFORE version of Songbird

Here is the BEFORE version which is actually the second time I altered the original bird.  With that attempt you can see leaf stamping done in matte medium all around the 22x30 composition, and a darker green was added to the background.  But the colors were too pastel hued for me and the painting just lacked something.  It was too middle value really then with all the saved white just did not work.
I'm almost done with its final reincarnation so please stay tuned.

Songbird

22x30 acrylic on watercolor paper, drawn from a tiny salt shaker.  I am doing an experiment so stay tuned, and I will show the BEFORE version later.