How I Paint

Just for fun, I thought I'd show the painting process for this painting:

This is a painting I did for a friend and it measures 22in X 30in and is done in watercolors (my favorite medium).
So first, I started by sketching it out and then masking of the birds and the branch with watercolor masking. This lets me paint the background without fear of getting paint on the foreground.

You can just barely see the birds masked off. The paper is also taped down to keep it from warping too much (which paper likes to do when wet from say . . .watercolors).
Next, I did my first wash of color:

Very light and basically just doing some color blocking and deciding what colors I wanted to use.
Second wash:

A little darker now, more brilliant colors used.
Third wash:

I actually did another wash after this and forgot to take a picture of it. Oh well! I let it dry completely and then removed the masking. Next came painting the birds, again, done in washes.

This is after 2 washes. You can start to see some details.

After another 2 washes. Time to paint the branch!

The finished painting again - did 2 washes for the branch and touched up the sparrows. I hope my friend likes it!