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Ah, art and chickens--what a wonderful life! I spend hours in my chicken run--feeding, watering, petting, tossing treats, gathering eggs. I even relax in a lawn chair in the midst of the girls and boys, sometimes with my palette and a canvas, sometimes with my ipad and digital art program, sometimes with pencil and paper, but always with a camera.

On a recent sunny day, I captured this image of one of my roosters. I was delighted with the way the sun glistened off those tail feathers and made a bright path across his back.  So I was determined to try to paint him.  I snapped the photo and printed it so that I could try to recreate his regal pose with that lighting. (You know, it's really difficult to paint poultry from life, although I have on a few occasions.)

I began with a quick sketch on a 12 x 12 gallery-wrapped canvas. I've discovered that I love painting on these square canvases, although they do present some challenges for me. But he seemed to fit nicely on it. And I could paint right to the edge, as I would have no need for a frame. 

He had just eaten the flock's favorite treat--sunflower seeds--and his crop was full. I considered "trimming" the pendulous crop but decided to wait and see how it looked as the painting developed. Usually, when I begin applying paints, I lay down the darks first. With this painting, I was so enamoured with that streak of light that I wanted to lay that in to remind myself not to lose it.  I then mapped out his comb, wattle, and beak.

I realized that the lights I laid down weren't going to be light enough, but they began the "road map." Then I mixed some darks with ultramarine blue, cerulean blue, and quinacridone rose and began brushing in the darks of his tail feathers, using some of that same dark for the dark areas underneath his crop and saddle feathers. I mixed oranges with cad red, cad yellow medium, and cad lemon. Using burnt sienna and transparent oxide red, I began brushing in darker areas near the lower part of his body and the body areas that were turned away from the sun, in order to create form. Brushing in lighter siennas and oranges, I worked my way up the body. I decided that a simple background was called for, so I began brushing in a blue sky, a combination of ultramarine, cerulean, and white.  The complementary blues and oranges would be stunning, I decided. At this time, I began to clarify the edges of his comb and beak.

I continued to build his form with those rich siennas, umbers, reds, and oranges. Also, I placed darks within the folds of his wattle and the ground shadow, and I gently laid down some lights (made with cerulean and white) in his tail feathers.

I continued to refine the feathers and restate the lights.  I added his eye and used pinks to create the form and highlights on his comb and wattle. For the ground, I scratched the dark umber and purple shadows with my palette knife and a dry brush to create the suggestion of straw. As I looked carefully at my reference photo, I realized that the space between his neck and his tail feathers (his saddle area) was too wide, so I made an adjustment there. Oh, yes, at some point I painted his feet, trying to make certain that his huge spur on the back of his leg didn't get lost in the "straw."

All that remained--paint the edges of the canvas and hang a wire on the back! And here's the finished product:

Thanks for joining me in my studio and in my chicken run at Cackleberry Acres!