This lady cardinal was painted from a photo I found at Paint My Photo’s website. I thought she looked beautiful against the stark, winter background and, again, she somehow spoke to me, so I had to give it a go. Thanks to the photographer at PMP, Rodney Campbell, for sharing his photo.
Female Cardinal
I painted this twice, which I’ve been finding is a good process with most pictures. The first painting is kind of a practice/discovery piece and helps me troubleshoot problems so that hopefully the second painting turns out the way I like. According to the calendar we are heading toward the homestretch of winter, and I am eager to see the first robin of the year. Come on, spring!
Carol's Creative Papers 
Rodney Campbell’s images are wonderful. Wow, Carol, this painting is really impressive. You are rocking the watercolors! Seriously, you should be really proud of yourself! Nice underdrawing too! 💛💛💛
Beautiful composition and colors. Well done. N.
Love this Carol!!! ❤️It’s so beautiful!! And cooler that it’s a lady Cardinal…the males tend to get all the attention! Hehe Your watercolors are wonderful…would love to feature you sometime on my blog if you’d be up for it! 😊😉
This is so nice! Good job!
Carol, what a lovely lady Cardinal. She is a beauty.
A stern look! That’s a great eye.
Don’t forget to link to our blog in the comments. (K)
Thanks for the nice comments. Mama birds need to have a stern look. I will link up, and thanks for compiling the list for us!
Thank you 🙂
Thank you!
Charlie, glad you like this little lady. You have me speechless at wanting to feature my work sometime, but if you have confidence in me I’d be honored. It will be proof that it is never too late to learn – we all have to start somewhere 🙂
Thanks, Laura. Words like this coming from someone so talented really mean a lot to me. Thanks for all your encouragement! 🙂
Never too late!! I just started watercolor 7 months ago! Hehe… And yay!! Send me a note via my Let’s Connect link on doodlewash.com and then I can send you the details of what I need to make a post! So thrilled to feature you!! 😃😃
Carol, I am no more talented than anyone else. I think it’s just daily practice – and I definitely see your practice here as well! Thanks for your kindness.
Wow that is wonderful! So life like.
Very impressive!
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Beautiful drawing and painting :-)! Great colours, textures and highlights on both the bird and branch. Did you scratch off a bit of paint on the bird to get some whites or did the paint avoid those areas? (I’m just starting watercolours and have a lot of learning and practicing to do!)
Hi Myriam: Thanks for the comments! Funny you should ask about the whites because I accomplished them in three different ways – On the tail I used a white Prismacolor pencil, on the branch, bird’s body, and bird’s beak I avoided using too much color so the white of the paper would show through, and for the eyeball and the area around the eye I scratched out the white with an Xacto knife. Thanks for asking, and have a terrific weekend!
Very interesting. Thanks for the information. Good to know there are a few ways to get nice whites :-). Quite impressed with the white areas on the beak and body. The “sparkles” of unpainted paper give the bird life. Hope you are having a lovely week.