My project in Artistic Watercolor Techniques for Illustrating Birds course

Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures of the progress of this painting, but here's a rough outline of how it went.

* I traced the cardinal and holly photos in CorelDRAW.
* I played around with composition by resizing and moving the outlines around.
* I printed the outline drawing as well as the reference photos.
* I used masking fluid to keep the holly and the birds white (something I may experiment with NOT doing in the future).
* I painted the background, making sure to add texture with white gouache spatter (wet into wet to create distant flakes) and salt (seen at the bottom of the painting).
* I added the large paint spattering around the female cardinal. It was critical to do this before removing the masking fluid in case any spatters overlapped with the bird.
* I removed the masking fluid and painted the birds, keeping a close eye on tonal value.
* I then painted the holly, again paying close attention to tonal value. I used the reds and greens mixed together to create the shadow colors for the berries and leaves since they are complimentary colors.
* I finished off the painting with some more white spatters to create snow flakes in the foreground.

The large paint drops next to the female cardinal is something I've never done before and I very much liked the effect! I also paid very close attention to the tonal values of the birds, which I think is why they look so much more realistic than previous bird paintings that I've done.

Thanks for the great course, Sarah (@sarah_stokes)!