A Progression, of Sorts

I've been toying with this idea of bird portraits for a while. I guess it started with this one back in February.

That bird led to this one, and then this one, and of course, this, this, and this. And that's not even counting all the paper collage ones. I tell you what. Just go here and have a look...it's really ridiculous - the birds.

Linda pointed out to me that I was drawing an awful lot of birds and there were some birds and maybe I was on to something like, say, birds. So - we're officially calling it the year of the bird, at least for me.

I drew this tree swallow in my little Paperchase recycled paper sketchbook and was taken with how the gouache looked against the tinted paper...

But, I still thought it lacked something, so I tried it on some cool paper that Linda gave me...

And I pretty much hated how THAT paper handled the gouache. A lot. Big hate. But I kind of liked the background. So I went back to the brown paper and added in some watermark stamps (again...from Linda...did I mention I love Linda?) and suddenly, I started liking it...

At least a little more. I love how the white gouache pops against the brown paper. It makes me very happy.

The only drawback is that the paper is kind of thin, and tends to buckle when I apply the paint (see the top of that last picture, there?) So I've been experimenting with other papers. Right now, this is working really well...

Seems strange to find a paper specifically designed for dry media and use it for wet, but hey...we're thinking outside the box, people...