Laugh Kookaburra

This little ball of feathers and fluff came and sat on one of the trees in my garden yesterday morning so I made a quick sketch and photographed him before he flew off. Later on I worked the sketch in my Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Journal using watercolour.

I'm new to watercolour and still need lots of practice - it's so unpredictable! One thing I did realise though was that adding some ultramarine blue into my black/shadow areas really helped lively things up and make it more dimensional. All my mixed media/acrylic/pencil/collage playing with colour has its uses in this medium too!

As an aside, if you've ever heard a kookaburra you'll know they do laugh... but like a crazy thing that's just been given custard on their green beans in the asylum. :-) Just sayin'.