The little dipper

As I am currently offshore, I thought I might update this with some of my older paintings, this one in particular was a joy to paint. The river close to home is a fast flowing upland section of the Ribble, perfect territory for dippers, and on a few rounds around the circuit I spent some time watching these little birds. They were nesting underneath the footbridge that crosses the river, and being in a particular frame of mind decided to have a go at painting one. Previously I had been reading Keith Shackleton's autobiogrpahy in pictures, and was fixated by his paintings of birds. Another artist who I admire immensly with relation to wildlife is Martin Ridley whose website is a huge store of inspiration for me.
http://www.martinridley.com/index.html

So motivated was I to get this painting done I decided to go for acrylics rather than oils as I really wanted more of an instant result. I took some photos and drew some sketches of the birds in question (having a good spotting scope helped) and sat down and actually planned my painting.

Most of the time I usually thrash one out, a reproduction of what I see, but in this one having seen how proper artists go about things I decided to sit down and do a large sketch on plain lining wallpaper (cheap and really effective for the purpose).

Having decided on my composition and tones I transferred the sketch to cryla paper and using a very watery consistency blobbed in the main areas of colour. I've included a photo of my 'studio' set-up, the laptop is great, as I can change tonal values and work out areas of contrast, although it does get splashed from time to time when I get carried away, the 'studio' is in fact my attic space, and due to a lack of natural daylight (!), I supplement this with two daylight simulation lamps.

And so the finished article, I was really cracking on with this, but it did take me a couple of days to get it done, and I'm rather plased with him, although there are a couple of places that I think need refining. I'm not too happy about the bird's shadow or his coat, but this is all going in the bank of 'what to avoid in the future'.

"The little dipper" Acrylic on paper 14"x10"