Wren in Watercolour

 "Little Wren"

Original Watercolour

 It is funny how my days quite often do not go as planned. My day was well planned. I had visions of completing one of the final chapters in my new book. I raced to my studio this morning and realised one of the images for the next chapter , that I am about to  complete, was missing. Horror struck as the opening paragraph evolves around it. This meant I needed to go through my files to look for the missing part of the " story" in my exciting  section on portraits. Unintentionally I ended up clearing my filing cabinets on the desperate search to find it, which meant I also found many items that brought back fabulous memories from my years travelling all over the world. But of course it meant I was also not writing!


And so, I then finally settled to begin typing but the bird song outside my window distracted me. The tree outside was covered in little birds all singing beautifully in the afternoon sunshine. I love birds! On my morning walks I am frequently delighted to see a tiny wren in the hedgerow. They have always been my favourite little birds but I have never painted one and always wanted to. Strangely enough, on Twitter  a friend who posts fantastic nature photographs shared an image recently that looked just like the little bird I see every day. I call mine " Jenny" after my Grandfather's always calling them " Jenny Wrens". They are so quick, but so beautiful and so tiny.  And seemingly very round!

I started with the whole outline of my round subject and then placed the eye which to me is an important part of this little bird.  I kept the colours muted to remind me of the woodland where I walk.

 Wren outline and  first detail added to bring the wash to life.

 A few  extra touches really added a little more interest.  Tiny feather details on the body, markings on the tail and wings. And a little shadow at the base of the twig. And before I knew it my painting was complete.

 Building up my painting by adding detail 

There are times when I am enjoying a painting so much that I don't want it to be finished.  This is when I add my signature to tell myself not to work anymore on a piece.

 

 Signature added, painting complete!

Now I must get back to working on my new book!

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