I especially like it when I can make a watercolor using a reference photo I took myself. This is one of those paintings. I don’t take many great bird photos, but when I look for a reference photo, I do always try using one of my own. This past March when I wanted to paint a Cardinal, I looked through my photos and found this one, from a cold day in January of 2021. Not a great photo, but I liked how the bird sat on the curved branch of a dormant forsythia bush. I think the painting is much better than the photograph. This original watercolor is painted on 5.5″x8″ Strathmore paper.