Treasure trove

There’s a pub near us which keeps peacocks – I’m not sure why, maybe they think it lends an air of grandeur to the place. Anyway, we visited once for lunch some summers ago, and our son (much younger then) delighted in chasing around looking for dropped feathers. This is one of the treasures he found, and now it sits in a vase together with a few feathers.

I spent a few minutes deciding whether to do this with the Tombows (which might have worked well), but in the end I plumped for standard watercolours, mainly because I didn’t want this picture to look too much like I’d ‘drawn’ it. I decided to tackle the shadow first, then layer on the rest of the colours. The purple watercolour bled further than I’d expected, but I can live with that. I like the way that the shadow shows the curve of the feather away from the surface, which is just how it looked as I was painting.

The photo has come out rather darker and less luminous than the original – I’ve tried photographing it in every type of light and shade I can find and this is the closest I can get…never mind.

Only three more pages left in this sketchbook – I feel a visit to the art shop coming on!