lbb

(5x7)
Perhaps I shouldn't say, since last time I only lasted 4 days, but I've signed up for Leslie Saeta's 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge.
This is Day One.
I should have checked my proportions--the poor little bird's head look a bit pinched ... Need more practice drawing.

Jane asked if I mix my own browns and blacks. I do mix black, usually with blue and a brown, sometimes a red and green, but I use the earth tones--yellow ocher, raw sienna, burnt sienna, burnt umber--from the tubes, sometimes mixing them together or with other colors.
I'm finding that to get the darks, it's not only the colors, but the thickness of the paint: when there's more paint and less water, the paint doesn't diffuse as much and therefore stays more intense.