In progress - Spoonbill

Here's where I was when I ended for the night.  I had held hopes of finishing it in one day, but alas it was not to be.

I am really fascinated by spoonbills.  When I was in Florida, I saw bird after bird, but all I really wanted to see were spoonbills.  Finally, on our way out of the refuge, we saw them and I was thrilled.  I have a feeling that Richard thought me a bit odd.

But what else is new?

I think it's the juxtaposition of a breathtakingly beautiful bird with a butt-ugly head stuck on top.  Plus, they're so cute when they swish their bills around, looking for num-nums.

This is actually pretty accurate as far as colors go.

Next will be the neck, then I think I'll finish out the head.

Acrylic painting like this reminds me of when I make the Microsoft Office suite bend to my will as  art programs (what, my job pay for Adobe licenses for me when I am part of the risk team, not graphics?).  I have to think of everything in layers and build from the back layer forward.  Same thing here.

Does everyone approach paintings like this?  No.  But it's obvious that I have a problem coloring inside the lines, so this way I don't have to be so precious when I'm doing distant layers.  This avoids looking like I'm outlining the foreground while working on the background because I'm afraid of obliterating edges.