Watercolour Rooster

I always laugh when I think about this painting that I did in July, because the reference photo was from my crochet cruise back in 2018. Yes, I want all the way to Bonaire in the Caribbean to take a photo of a rooster, and then decided to paint it several years later.

Honestly though, I’m pretty proud of this painting because it’s one I painted from my own reference photo, with no tutorial to follow and I think it turned out pretty good!

Above is the painting with my original reference. As you can see I took some artistic license to simplify the background a bit but I think I kept it fairly true to the feel of the original photo.

I’m really enjoying learning watercolour. It never ceases to amaze me how much there is to learn with it. For instance, I loved this painting, and the one I did following it was a total failure, although I try not to think of it that way. I try to take each perceived failure as a lesson in what doesn’t work so that I can adjust my technique the next time.

So, what do you think of my rooster? Have you ever tried watercolour? If so, do you have favourite artists or tutorials you can recommend on YouTube? I’d love to know!