Preparations

Once in a while I like to paint a larger piece

and in those cases I find it very useful to research my subject.

I always try to find the right lines or the most typical movement of my subject. As you see this time it's all about magpies. I really love this bird, and I have 4 or 5 of them in my garden on a daily basis. They're much fun to watch but they can be rather mean to one another.

At this point I have no clear idea of how I want my new piece to be, the composition, I'm just playing with lines and movements until I get a feel of it all. It's also very useful to try different colors so that I can find what I'm searching. How do you approach a new larger painting?

I'm always surprised of the white color, nearly every time it's in use it's every other color than white that bring the eye to see white. Think of a white flower, how is it we paint  the white??
Oh, how I love working with colors, always so much to learn and to understand. My Neocolors have become my favorites, for the longest time I've preferred the twinks but now it's changed.

How do you like the greedy one? I so fell for this one, photo from Steve Lyddon, PMP, it just HAS to be the main focus in my piece.
To my great joy I discovered that a pair of magpies are nesting in one of our apple trees, I hope they will stay there and hopefully get fledglings. That would be great fun.

I have to thank you all for all your well wishes last week, I'm still coughing like crazy. This flue is said to last at least 5 weeks, so well, one week down.

Linking to PPF. Have a nice week, friends!