I got my first "commission" Tuesday afternoon. Don't get excited. It was just my sister, asking me to paint something as a gift for her ex-mother-in-law. She said her "e-m-i-l" likes bluebirds and cardinals, but really any kind of "regular" bird would do. She did not specify a medium.
I decided to do a bluejay because they are colorful and funny and impressive with their bad selves. We don't see many bluejays in our yard until it snows and we put out birdseed. The bluejay suddenly comes out of nowhere and RULES the birdfeeder...until the woodpecker arrives.* I cannot accurately draw any kind of bird "from my head," so I googled "bluejay" and found some images to use and was able to freehand a reasonably recognizable bluejay. Because I could not decide what medium to use - watercolor, pen & ink, or colored pencils - I did a pencil sketch on 140# cold press watercolor paper, thinking it would work for anything I had.
The plan was to mask out the bird, do a loose watercolor background, then put in the bird in detail. Problem was, I couldn't decide what color the background needed to be until I did the bird. Next thing I knew, I was coloring the bird with colored pencils. And I like it, so far. But it's all pastel-ish, and needs some color in the background. And I'm scared I'll ruin it.
So I took a picture of the colored pencil drawing and sent it to my sister and asked her to help me decide whether to put in a background or leave it as is. She was no help at all in that regard. PLUS she said she thought I was going to do a bluebird or a cardinal.
So.
I'ma do a bluebird.
*For kicks, I just googled a bluejay call. I'm on the back porch (yea, it's cold), and the neighborhood birds might have heard it, because suddenly they're all chattering.
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