I was giving an out of focus background another go as I’m liking the affect more than just plain white background.

I was not worried about the paint over lapping the bird because most colours of Gouache are opaque and I knew the background would easily be covered up once I started painting.

I used a very thin layer of paint on saturated paper and lifted some highlights off with a paper towel.

Blocking in areas of colour and just getting a general feeling for the direction of the feathers.

I always like the start with the eyes or beak and once you put a little white dot in the eyes it just seems to make them come alive. This one had some nice definitions in the legs and feet, which I always like painting.

Now time to start adding lots of feathers and make the bird look a little more rounded by painting shadows under the belly and wings.

Next I started to paint the little bits of curled bark strands that the pardalote was using in its home renovations. Once this was completed I started painting the shadows on its belly.

Finally I painted the little stick that was sitting on my desk, rather than the rope in the photo. I used some blu-tack to stick it to a book so I could get the right angle to create a shadow in the same direction that was on the pardalote.

They make a beautiful little quick chirp-chirp and can be heard most of the day while I paint.