House Sparrow

I agree with you Paul - sparrows are very underrated little birds. However, after seeing your excellent painting I am sure lots of people will see them in a different light. This is a beautiful composition with stunning brush work.

The detail is incredible! Superb colours and you have even brought over the tiny soft feathers.....brilliant!

Beautiful sparrow!

Stunning work again Paul. You've certainly made us look twice at all the wonderful colours that can be found in the humble sparrow. Incredible detail in the lichen and branch as well.

Wow, lovely portfolio Paul, I must invest in a better camera, even when they sit still the head is invariably twitching back and forth, you capture the colours perfectly, damn you, lovely work, looking forward to future pics

There is nothing ordinary about the sparrow paul, in looks or character...I share my house with one! She's a positive minx I can tell you and she's got me trained perfectly. Your portrait is a beautiful homage to this humble little bird.

Paul - I have only just found your gallery, but I'm very glad I did. I just think they are all marvellous, so clear and detailed, appealling and such clarity of colour. I have just started an interest in painting birds myself, so it is great to have such inspiration. Thank you for showing them to us.

Your bird paintings are in another league in my book. Amazing work.

How I've missed you work before I don't know, beautiful work, love the detail and colours. Great portfolio, are they pure watercolours or do you use an opaque white as a mixture on the lighter colours. Either way, stunning work.

He looks as if he could fly away any minute. Lovely work :)

Wow, so many lovely comments and certainly not expected! Thank you everyone for your very kind words! **Peter** I do use an acrylic white for some of the highlights and fine details with a very light wash of watercolour over the top just to tint and tone down the acrylic. I don't mix the acrylic with any of the watercolour pans though as it can make the paint very cloudy. Plus acrylic white is used directly from the tube, well directly from the middle of the lid as I don't use much. :-) Other than that all the birds are painted using Winsor & Newton half pans and just the one brush - a Coteman 000. Just about to start a male Bullfinch........... **Derek** I use a fairly basic camera to take my photos for my painting projects so not a megabucks type. I use a Fujifilm Finepix HS20 EXR which retails around £250 with a fantastic 30x zoom! So not the expensive types which cost around £1500 upwards for something half decent! The HS20 EXR is a brilliant camera which is called a 'bridge' camera, simply because it bridges the gap between over normal point and shoot digital's and the professional types. Thanks also to Julie, Avril, Carol, Val, Fiona, Christine, Thea and Sarah.

Incredible attention to detail, beautiful colours and terrific brush strokes. Lovely gallery!

Hi Paul, thanks for your comment on the SAA for my latest work, as I said before just love your attention to detail. With regards to fine highlight detail, I sometimes use gouache, mixed with other watercolours, get the same results as other opaque watercolours. Only use as a minimum. Thanks again.

Thank you everyone for your lovely and encouraging words. ***Peter*** Hi, I do use pure watercolours but in the sense of half pans (pro quality) made by Winsor & Newton. I prefer to use pans for my paintings simply due to not needing large washes. I do use white such as acrylic or gouache but only on there own. I find that if you add these to the watercolour they can muddy up big time! So the lighter colours are more water than watercolour and then built up in layers. :-)

your paintings of birds are so real as a photographs, sir i can never paint like that but thanks for writting for my painting of bird

Thank you Subodh for your kind words.

Dear Paul,<br />I have just been reading through your article in the December issue of Leisure Painter. It&#39;s a wonderful picture and your instruction details yet simple, and I can&#39;t wait to have a go. I have wanted to paint birds for ages but never found a book that fitted the bill. Are you likely to produce a book to help me learn? Valerie

A big thank you to everyone and your lovely comments about y work. **Valerie** - I have considered putting a book together and may do this over the next year between commission work. As you can imagine there&#39;s a lot of planning, photographing, scanning, contracts and writing involved, but this is one thing that&#39;s definitely on my job list of ambitions to achieve. Paul :-)