Description
Even though John James Audubon would not have been impressed, I was reasonably happy with the results of this watercolor of House Finches. There are several types of finches in North America with red highlights who fall well short of the brilliant solid reds of a cardinal. In fact, they look like sparrows who got carried away with the rouge. The House Finches spend their winters in Monterey and tend to hang out in the branches of our trees while I’m doing yardwork. They’re too skittish to sit still while I walk up to photograph them. So, I shot a lot of pictures through the living room window to get the poses for a good composite. The biggest challenge was to paint each bird with the same consistent direction and strength of light.
