From the Artist: I usually play around in watercolor and acrylics, nothing really serious yet just working from instruction books. This challenge sounded like fun so I found a very colorful subject to see how it would come out. My reference photo was basically very warm, so I chose the coolest paint I have, Payne's gray, and tried to make a warm feeling painting. I think I succeeded but had to force myself to stop because I was getting to "piddly".
From the Painting Guide: You certainly set a challenge for yourself, painting a warm subject in a cool color! I think it works very well, and the choice of Payne's gray a good one as it gives such a great range of tones.
One thing you might consider is your overall composition, which is very centrally dominated. Do some thumbnail sketches in which you move the bird the right and add more foliage to the left, and see how you feel about this (or take a look at this version which I did quickly in a photo editing program). If you just crop a bit off the right of the painting, you run the risk of the bird's head being on the center line, cutting the painting in half.
When I find myself "just quickly" doing this and that, I know it's time to stop painting, but it can be hard. What I've found works well for me is to then do another, similar painting, trying out the things I still wanted to "just quickly" do on the first one.
From the Painting Guide: You certainly set a challenge for yourself, painting a warm subject in a cool color! I think it works very well, and the choice of Payne's gray a good one as it gives such a great range of tones.
One thing you might consider is your overall composition, which is very centrally dominated. Do some thumbnail sketches in which you move the bird the right and add more foliage to the left, and see how you feel about this (or take a look at this version which I did quickly in a photo editing program). If you just crop a bit off the right of the painting, you run the risk of the bird's head being on the center line, cutting the painting in half.
When I find myself "just quickly" doing this and that, I know it's time to stop painting, but it can be hard. What I've found works well for me is to then do another, similar painting, trying out the things I still wanted to "just quickly" do on the first one.