I was looking at challenging myself to create something a little more realistic, and this time with a background.

I start by looking at all my bird photos I’ve taken over the past few years and what I think would make a nice painting.

If I create a nice artwork I then get worried when it comes to creating a background as this is often an afterthought and not always what’s in the photo.

So I thought this time I would mix things up a little and start with the background, like I do in oil paint.

I was looking for as much detail as possible while painting the post, even though its only about 3inch across it took me about 4hrs to paint.

Next I started painting the eye and then a rough grade of feathers on the bird concentrating on the head.

This always helps if you have a good quality photo to start with.

Next I started to paint the yellow breast feathers, which took about 5 coats of paint and lots of changes of water to keep the paint a vibrant Yellow. Note to self, buy an opaque yellow not a transparent one next time.

At about 10pm I finished painting the legs as my friend Kelsey said to me years ago “Most people neglect the feet, make sure you do a good job.”

I spent another 1.5hrs in the morning re visiting the feet, feathers and a few bits of the wooden post.

I signed my name and then decided to darken the whole background as I thought it was distracting from the bird. Also blue paint adds a bit of life and shine to the normally mat finish of black.

So this little Eastern Yellow Robin on a small A5 piece of paper took me 3 times longer than the squirrel that I painted the other day.

So much for getting faster the more I paint, I just get more detailed. My next step is to get some finer brushes.

I didn’t misspell my name the I in CHRIS is just faint and I’m about to fix it.

Do you have a favourite bird that you would like to see me paint?