I call a painting done when I get fed up to the back teeth with it. Boy did my back teeth get fed up with this one.
This is a preliminary photograph of the thing. It still needs a spray coat of flat matt (gets rid of uneven sheen - like on the right of the image), then a proper photo taken of it with my DLSR.
I wasn't overly pleased with the composition. I felt the birds needed to be a little closer. It would have made painting the detail much easier. This is an A2 sized painting, and some of the patterning is about 2mm across. The wing tips of the lower bird are between 1mm and 1.5mm thick. Did my eyes in, it did.
For some reason, the higher bird was my nemesis. I just could not get the thing right. Still unhappy with it. The lower bird was more forgiving. I completed it in about three weeks - a bleedin' record for me! Actually, the entire painting was completed in a couple of months, rather than the six months it took for the Wigeon. Lockdown does have its benefits.
A donated A3 print will be whizzing its way to the David Shepherd organisation near Guildford; once I've sprayed and photographed it. I'll have to wait a bit until my RSPB contacts come back from furlough before sending them an A3 print.