Sparrows in the Garden

All last week I was so looking forward to getting back to my most recent art journal spread. When the time came, the first order of business was to add color to the detailed sparrow pencil drawings.

the birds in my art journal spread are now painted

Painting the Birds

I used washes of transparent acrylic—Golden Fluid Acrylics, to be specific. I really like these paints for a couple of reasons. First, I enjoy that they’re fluid yet still highly pigmented. In my painting style I don’t want the texture of brush strokes to show, and the consistency of these paints is perfect for that. Second, many of the colors are naturally transparent. This also works for my style where I like to build up color and value with transparent colors laid over each other. I guess it’s sort of like watercolor, except that once the paint has dried—which it does quickly—it’s permanent and the next layer won’t disturb those underneath.

I didn’t use many colors: just Raw Umber, Light Burnt Umber, Raw Sienna, Transparent Red Oxide, Burnt Sienna, and black. Also, I used very light washes of Prussian Blue for the shadows. The painting went well. But I wasn’t happy because the birds were getting lost against the background.

Bringing out the Sparrows in the Garden

the finished art journal spread with sparrows in the garden

I don’t think I totally solved this problem, but I did work towards it, beginning with darkening the background in the lower left corner and along the right edge. I also dulled some of the flowers with washes of Burnt Umber and/or Prussian blue. This had the effect of pushing them further back and creating some depth in the piece.

In an effort to make the birds more prominent, I increased the range of values within them. Contrast attracts the eye. I deepened the darks, including adding shadows between the different sections of the wings and intensifying the darkest markings on the wing feathers, tails, and heads. I tried brightening the highlights on their chests and cheeks, but it didn’t make much difference as the white paint I added was barely different from the white of the paper I’d drawn the sparrows on.

My poor sparrow’s feet were clunky and awkward because I’d tried to cut them out, but they were too tiny to do a good job with. The only thing I could think of to do was to add more collage foliage, some of which covered parts of the feet.

The last thing I did was to add some white linework and dots.

Summing Up

All these things didn’t make much of a change, but it did set the birds into the scene. Although I’d have liked the birds to be more prominent, I’m not sure it’s necessary. After all, real sparrows in a garden do tend to blend into their surroundings.

You can barely see them in the photo, but I did cut three leaves from silver foil (from candy wrappers) and glued them in the upper left corner. There were several tiny pieces of foil left from cutting the serrations around the leaf edges, and I sprinkled those near the leaves, sort of like glitter but more subtle.

Here are a few details cropped from the finished piece. I find this so fun to do! Sometimes the details can make nice art pieces in themselves, on cards for instance.

a detail from the right half of the spread

detail from the left side of the spread

a detail of just one sparrow

If you haven’t tried art journaling, I encourage you to take the plunge. It’s such a satisfying art form, freeing and rewarding. You can find several videos on my YouTube channel for inspiration and information.

By the way, silver and gold foil from candy wrappers is a highly useful component for mixed media. I especially recommend the gold from Ferrero Rocher chocolate and hazelnut candies. Ghirardelli and Lindt also have lovely foils on many of their chocolate bars. Sometimes, especially around Christmas and Easter, Hershey’s kisses have nice foil colors. Eating all this candy may seem like a burden, but sometimes artists have to make sacrifices for their craft.

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