I completed this painting a few weeks ago and it is now waiting to be varnished.
For this piece I wanted to portray the Brown Creeper doing what it does best - creeping up a tree trunk - with an unfocused background behind the bird. But, anyone who has caught a glimpse of these fascinating little birds will know that they don't stay in one place for long which makes them difficult to photograph. I looked through many of our photos and I couldn't find one photo that showed the whole body in that perfect position, so I resorted to using a photo editor to combine three reference photos together...And I think it worked! The client wanted more moss in the painting than the reference photos showed, so I went outside to the same area this creeper was photographed and took a few more reference photos of moss on the trees. I like the little bit of color it adds to this muted painting.
Below is the painting (right) next to the edited reference photo on my drafting table.
