Ready for the bird...

Well...brought the landscape part of this painting as
far as I think I want to bring it for now. Will let dry,
and then start cutting out newsprint mock-ups of
ruffed grouse in flight to study possible compositions,
poses, character.

I have a half-dozen sketch books of various wildlife
studies, and refer to those old sketches for ideas of
ruffed grouse.

I DON'T just copy old sketches, but use them to refresh
my understanding, knock cobwebs off my memory, and
redraw many many more. This gives me a sense of
possibilities.

I build them up with rectangles to represent the body,
then imagine the rectangles in various points of
perspective. To this I go thru the process of adding
body parts and considerations to feel right to my
understanding of the bird....here, some examples...