Lauren Everett Finn
I started with transparent
watercolor...massing in the
shapes....I also painted the
eggs almost to completion,
because, if the eggs didn't
work...the rest of the painting
wouldn't work.  After all they
are the stars of this one!
Added more darks....
And more darks...I'm starting
to add some texture to the
nest...
This is an experimental
technique...not traditional
watercolor....I use some gesso
as a medium and mix some
gold into it to make an
opaque paint...I want the
nest to have some substance
and texture....I start brushing in
the twigs and straw of the
nest with this opaque color
I scrub out some of the
watercolor darks along the
top and upper left side...I add
some more straw and twigs
to the nest...I add a glaze of
the orangey gold to parts of
the background....to unite the
bright colored nest to the rest
of the painting.....I thought I
was done at this point....until I
realized that the nest looks
like it might fall out of the tree!
i decided to add
a heftier branch
at the left...So
we won't lose
our eggs!  And
here is the
finished painting....