Extinct
I'm going to share WIP (work in progress) pictures I've decided, even when I am quite a way from being finished. I won't share any real information about the species in order to keep all that in one place and not having to repeat the information multiple times. Sadly because of the setup of my area I paint in, I can't really take good pictures of the finished paintings so they are all phone versions. In real life this looks more vibrant than it does in the picture.
This species is extinct. When I did this project before I didn't let myself paint anything that went extinct before 1900. I've thrown out pretty much all the rules I'd given myself before, so why not let myself paint species that have been extinct even longer than that? I am loving painting much larger than before. Now I'm tempted to do something even bigger (these are 12"x18"). Maybe one of these days I will go very large.
You will notice that I haven't painted the eyes yet. It is very annoying to me because I always like to start there. When I did the whales, it was difficult because the eyes were so small I couldn't put any personality into them. These birds though were described as having white skin on their faces. All the taxidermy specimens do not show that because they are old, and probably even the preservation process alters the colours. With watercolour, I cannot add the white in later so I have to leave that area for last.
I don't know if you are able to see this. It is my sketch I made. I have actually done a fair amount of editing to try and make it easier to see. I tend to draw very lightly when making an initial drawing. I am still trying to show a lot of personality in this round of paintings. As with the last time I was doing this, I am trying to accurately portray the species. More important to me though, I am not an exact photo-realistic or scientific painter. Instead, these paintings hopefully portray how I feel the animals character might manifest in their daily life. While I have said I may include plants, and I have looked into some I would like to paint, it will be difficult for me since there is no face.