Happy Blackbird

It’s been very dry and warm these past days in the Netherlands. In fact, this has been continuing on for weeks until the grass stopped being green and the animals were parched with thirst. I myself am not a fan of sprinklers because of excess water consumption, but we had no choice but to put one on for a few hours in the garden. Then one early evening around sunset approached a cute little blackbird, otherwise known as Merel in Dutch. She perched herself on the grass and just stared at the spray of water with amazement tweeting “I can’t believe this is happening” as if some miracle appeared. What a priceless expression that was! So cute. And now I wanted to paint about it!

The Background

This painting was done digitally using my iPad and Procreate app. First came the light blue background, and then as Layer One I added stuff from pre-set patterns available on the app: White clouds and green Hessian grass.

The Water and the Bird

Then I incorporated the water as Layer Two. Firstly, the pre-set patterns of “water” was spread in blue across the grass area. Then the next was a challenge, trying to get the best effect as possible for emulating water spray. I went for spray paints and splatters in blue and white. The bird was then sketched in as the next Layer using an “HB pencil”. For fun, I even added a little worm!

Colouring Her In

My little blackbird was coloured in with acrylic paint to give a more solid and opaque appearance. It took a pair of layers when adding the finer details like the eyes, but I’m so pleased it turned out well. Once again, I kept in mind Juliette Crane’s circle and rectangle theory for whimsical animals. This is my whimsical blackbird then! And let’s not forget too the tiny little grey worm, although I suspect the blackbird is so pleased to see some water that she’s gotten completely oblivious to her!

And once again another cute digital painting! So much fun to work with the iPad and app when you are in a creative mood but don’t want to get your paints out and make a mess. I normally like to do this In the evenings when I’m sitting on our sofa to chill. And also great to see these little animals happy too!