Backyard Visitors: Black-Chinned Hummingbird

This painting has given me some grief. I have been painting it now for months...slowly, very, very slowly. Some times I would look at it and think, "Yeah, this works," but then other days I would hate the world.

However, before I get too much into the self deprecating details of my artistic dilemma, here I will: first, give a break down of the painting's various parts; second, give a flawed step by step of the painting process (I took some really terrible photos with this one, possibly as an external representation of my internal turmoil?); and third, some questions posed to you that might help me with the next painting.

The painting also isn't 100% finished. The white boarder/background needs cleaning up, along with the two little lady bugs, and it is not varnished. Varnishing will help things, like the male hummingbird's colors, to really shine.

Overall Description

I first saw this half face sculpture hanging at The Met in New York City, much like my Joseph painting, which you can read about here. On the flight home from New York I got out my sketch book and drew this:

Brilliant, I know! The detail is astounding.

All joking aside, immediately I knew that I wanted to do a wildflower motif forming the other side of the face. While the flowers I initially drew were good options, in the end I opted for only wildflowers that I grow in my yard. In keeping with the whole "Back Yard Visitors" idea where I am painting only birds that come into my backyard. I thought it very apropos.

The birds changed from a woodpecker to humming birds and slowly the painting came together.

Now to the details!

The Head

Christened with the stately name of Fragmentary Marble Head of Girl, the statue that I used in the painting is a Roman statue, possibly found in Athens, dating from around 138 -161 CE.

And that is all we really know of her. She is currently on display at The MET in gallery 171.

The Met has recently changed the image they had posted of her. Before it was this terrible black and white photo, and I opted to use my own photo for the painting. But now they have given her a rather dramatic background. I have fantasized about attempting a companion piece by vertically switching the orientation of the face and making an autumn/winter version. Almost as an extremely subtle nod to the Renaissance artist, Arcimboldo, and his seasonal fruit/veggie people. We will see.

Vertumnus, Oil on Canvas, 1591, Guiseppe Arcimboldo,

The Flowers and Butterflies

The flowers are as follows, but are not to scale:

Pink Cosmos

Allium

Butterfly Bush

Sunflower

Hummingbird Mint

Poppies

Echinacea

Cornflowers

Lilac

Evening Primrose

The butterflies are Painted Ladies. Like everyone, we get a good crop of painted ladies at our plants. However, back in 2019 hundreds of butterflies descended onto our lilac bush. In the video below, you can see them when they move, but there so many more just resting. It was amazing. Maybe not better than a cicada emergence, but far more elegant and quiet. I have wanted to use the photos I took of them in a painting for a very long time. I plan on using them in additional paintings as well.

The Birds

The two humming birds are Black-Chinned Hummingbirds. We get a few females each year, with one male tending to fight them off of the flowers and/or dance for them. I love hearing the high pitch of his wings flying over and then seeing him swoop up and down trying to attract a lady friend. One year I was even lucky enough to see both a Calliope and a Rufous humming bird, but only once.

Step by Step Painting Process

• Step 1: Underpainting/Base layer

I think that this is where I messed up, and where I am having the hardest time with this painting. I normally tone my boards, this is called an imprimatura (you can read an old blog post about it here). Imprimaturas help create a tonal color harmony throughout a piece. This is especially helpful when you are using reference photos from multiple sources with different lighting. I did not tone my board with an imprimatura with my lesser gold finch painting, and I really liked how the white of the board helped brighten the colors. I thought I would follow the same process again with Half-face. Bad move it turns out.

I used only warm colors for the underpainting to match the warm shadows of my Half-face image. However, even though they are all warm colors, the tones are all over the place. If I had noticed my problem at this stage, I would have been able to fix it. I am not sure why I didn't.

Colors Used:

• Face: Van Dyke Brown + Trans. Red Earth + Titanium White

• Humming Birds: Same as face, with more Van Dyke Brown

• Flowers: Napthol Red, Hansa Yellow Medium, Pthalo Blue, and Sap Green in various mixtures.

• Step 2: Establishing Deep Shadows

At this stage I was feeling really good about how things were shaping up. Remember, all paintings start off ugly.

Colors used:

• Dark Tones: Van Dyke Brown + Pthalo Blue

• Mid Tones: Van Dyke Brown

• Light Tones: Van Dyke Brown + Trans. Red Earth

• Step 3: Establishing Mid tones and Highlights

With the highlights I moved away from the warm colors of the shadows and started to introduce cooler colors.

Colors Used:

• Highlights: Prussian Blue + Titanium White

I am not sure why she photographs this way, but her face is much smoother and less dirty looking in real life. Gotta figure that one out.

You can also see that I have started to

create the shadows and highlights on the flowers as well. As I painted the flowers, I used the same process for all of them.

Take the echinacea for example:

For all of the flowers I used a warm underpainting color. For this flower that was Napthol Red + Titanium White.

To then create deeper shadows I used the flower's base color + Van Dyke brown. As Van Dyke brown was the primary shadow color for the face, I used it in all of my shadows. I did this to help create cohesion throughout the shadows.

For the highlights I then used Titanium white plus a small amount of Prussian Blue. To, again, tie in the highlights and shadows of the face.

• Step 5: Humming Birds

I think they turned out cute.

Colors Used:

• Olive Green

• Hansa Yellow

• Titanium White

• Van Dyke Brown

• Prussian Blue

• Dioxazine Purple (for the male only)

• Step 6: Background

  
  

Colors Used:

• Emerald Green + Pthalo Blue (a tiny amount) + Titanium White

The background is warm, like the shadows, in order to help it sit back behind the face. It is not finished, nor is the face's cast shadow.

I know, I really jumped the gun with this post. I should have a finished painting first, but I wanted to get some feedback before I started my next Backyard.

Painting for Sale

I had a question about this and thought I should answer it here first. Yes, the painting will be for sale, eventually. It should land in the $950 - $1100 range. Limited Edition Prints will also be available for it around $100.

Questions for you

(Please note that as these paintings were photographed months apart, with different lighting conditions, there is some color variance):

1. Do you think these two paintings belong together as part of a larger series? I not asking if they match, per se, but more if they like jive together? (That makes no sense.)

   1. If not, why?

2. Do you think the background of Half-face is an issue?

3. Do you think the color saturation of either painting is too much and problematic?

4. Do you think there is color harmony not only from flower to flower, but also as a compositional whole?

5. Is there anything else you can think of that can keep me up at night, specifically in regards to Half-face?

Please leave a comment below with your answers, and thank you a thousand times in advance.

Future Backyard Visitor Mock-up Question:

I also need some help on a mock-up for another future painting, and the question is easy, which one do you prefer? Left or Right? I am not necessarily asking about colors or bird placement, just which one do you like more? Or maybe I am also asking about colors and bird placement... Also yes, I am aware that the flying bird is an Eastern Blue bird and not a Lazuli Bunting, but I still gonna use it.

Is this totally going to be an Emma M Lion painting with Lazuli Buntings flying over her? Yes, yes it is. If you know, you know. If you don't, I can't recommend the books more.

And I think that I have chatted enough.

If you have any questions for me, feel free to reach out at katherine@katherinegriffinstudio.com and/or subscribe to my newsletter, using the link below, to stay up to date on my blog posts.

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Have a Great Day!!!