My project for course: Playful Animal Illustration with Photoshop

I tried illustrating a bird I find fascinating to look at, the Groove Billed Ani. Not the most "playful" subject as it is all black :) I soon realised that I would be better off adding some color to my bird to make the picture interesting. I struggled liking my illustration to begin with, when I was adding green foliage to the background. The colorscheme came together when I made the green bush into another rock formation, and then I was more happy about the entire out come.

I have enjoyed the course, it is great to get a look at the entire process, especially the blocking of shapes and colors will help me get started in future projects. I am in Affinity Photo and was a bit jealous of some of the brushes you have to pick from - even though I have plenty of extra brushes myself, I now want more :)