Charming Traveller

Charming Traveler Hummingbird 09A Charming Traveller visited me in the garden. I heard him arrive with those fast wings and watched as he screeched to a stop and hovered right in front of me. Luckily, I had a camera locked and loaded and got a great picture of him. Hummingbirds are a favorite subject of mine.

Sketching

Charming Traveler Hummingbird 01Hummingbirds are such expert aviators. It is utterly amazing how fast and accurate their flying is

Charming Traveler Hummingbird 02Beginning with the hummingbird’s main subject, I then drew the most important flowers behind and below him. I used his photograph to draw him entering the stage from up and to the right. Putting a pastel kind of wash in the background helps me to see the bird outline better.

Charming Traveler Hummingbird 03I faithfully render the hummingbird main star.

Charming Traveler Hummingbird 04To show how he quickly arrived and froze, the only thing I could think of was to put those cartoon movement curves on him. He was repeatedly drawn. The first image was very light and getting darker till he arrived in full color.

Charming Traveler Hummingbird 05The patch of sunflowers I sat in is pretty thick, full of flowers and leaves.  With a complicated puzzle of background requiring a little bit of simplification. Finally, becoming a continuous melody of nature.

Charming Traveler Hummingbird 06Slowly finishing the background and adjusting the hummingbird shapes to allow transparency was kind of tricky.

Charming Traveler Hummingbird 07The gradual darkening, and adjusting transparency of the bird were completed in many steps.

Charming Traveler Hummingbird 08The painting was almost complete. But as I gazed at it, there was something wrong. It was the background that competed with the main character.

Charming Traveler Hummingbird 09Wa Lah! I added a rose wash over the entire background and it darkened and dulled it, allowing Mr. Hummingbird to shine in the front. He is done! I did avoid the front sunflower face to keep it at the same level as the hummer. Now, the test will be to see how many people notice him flying into the frame.

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