Possibly my most complicated yet, made more challenging by painting on light grey mount board. The white side of the mount board had been damaged, so I flipped it over. Big mistake. First two to three coats of paint come out dull, due to greyness in board. The white areas of the painting have about 5 to 10 coats of paint! Other light areas were given an undercoat of white.
On and off, took about a year. Though I did take 6 to 7 months off during the hot late spring, summer and early autumn, and then Christmas.
Signed, limited edition print to be donated to RSPB - possibly to be raffled at their Nature of Scotland awards in December.
90% luck, 5% field craft, 5% camera skills.
Ah, this is where it might get a bit tricky.
Bit of history first. I've donated a number of prints to The Lodge since about 2016. I'm given to understand there can be a bit of a bun fight between various teams to get their hands on them for fund raising. Last year was the first time RSPB Scotland got their hand on five prints, only because I sent them to the NoS team directly.
The NoS team decided to bundle the prints with 50 chances to enter their prize draw Win a magical trip to the dazzling Isle of Coll! - a Environment crowdfunding project in Edinburgh by RSPB Scotland (crowdfunder.co.uk) Note, this crowdfunder is now closed.
Kind of a win-win situation; a buyer gets 50 chances to enter the raffle draw and bags a print of their choice. This year, the NoS team may or may not retain the same format.
A word of warning. The bundling of prints with raffle entries proved very popular. Three prints (Wigeon, Buzzards and Lapwing) were 'claimed' (i.e. bought) on the night of the awards - possibly by attendees of the awards ceremony; but I can't be sure. The two remaining prints (Coot and Little White Egret) went on Friday and early Saturday morning. I can't remember if the NoS team sent me the Crowdfunder link on the day of the ceremony awards or the day after.
I'll be posting prints to the NoS team sometime in September. The date of the awards ceremony should be known by then. I think the Crowdfunder link is made live on the day, which gives you a chance to bag a print, provided the price isn't too steep. I'll make more details available closer to the date.