The Cardinal bird of Nth America

very lovely painting, i love to paint birds. You have alot of talent, and i think the tissue texture has worked, does this involes dabbing rough tissue into wet paint to add texture? :-)

Thank you Rebecca, The way I use the tissue is, first I draw the bird,then I get white acrylic glue and dilute it 50/50 with water, brush over the canvas and upto but not over the drawing, place your tissue onto the wet surface and brush more glue over the tissue , use just enough to wet the tissue and use a medium hard brush to dab the tissue into the texture you require, make sure you dab out any air bubbles and if you want a heavier texture just add more tissue, leave to dry completly before painting, if some parts are to heavily textured you can rub it down carefully with sandpaper when completly dry. I would advise you to experiment with it on a piece of board first, I'd love to see what you do with it,

Thank you Kirstie,yes the weather was kind to me and I even got a little bit sunburnt : ) It was rather nice to see my brothers and sisters again all in the same country celebrating the wonderful life of our dear old mum who passed away aged 96,

A lovely piece, William - love the stark contrast of the colorful Cardinal against the snowy background, it's very dramatic.

I found this painting again, yay :-p sorry William.......... i only just read your reply to me, i am very forgetful, i can only apologise :-) so you actually use tissue and stick it to the canvas to create a textured effect? not just use tissue to dab in texture? acrylic glue? is this pva glue? (polyvinyl) or something different? this technique is reminding me a lot of papier mache, am i wrong? id love to have a go too :-p but need more info on it first :-) i shall await your reply and remember to check back :-p

Rebecca if you have tissues and pva glue watered down 50 50 you are ready to go, it is just like papier mashe, but you dont need lots of layers and you move the tissue gently where you want it with a brush and stipple it as well, Good luck.

that is really interesting to know, i had never thought about adding this technique to a painting :-) thank you :-)