So happy to get to my first painting of the white hummingbird I had so gleefully stalked with my telephoto at the Arboretum in Santa Cruz a few months back. I have lots of plans for all photos I took of him  but I wanted to start with something for my Birds & Teacups series.  I paired him with a white Limogues T&V demitasse, which is a delicate and glowing as the bird, and a magnolia grandiflora bloom.  If I’s wanted to be matchy-matchy I might have painted whit ivy, which seems to be depicts on the handle of the demitasse, but there’s enough magic and mystery going on in this image and I really loved the the scale of the flower compared to the bird and the cup.

Quick oil sketch in rose and vilolet tones.

Blocked in a whole lot of loose color, working largely dark to light.

Placing more halftones and highlights.

Blending.

Honing.

Refining.

Good day’s work but I ran out of daylight and objectivity. By Monday I should have more of both!