This great blue heron is about to take flight in the Matagorda, Texas wet lands next to the Colorado River. He was well over 100 yards away when I took a chance photoshot and got lucky enough to hit the target. His image came out fuzzy and very small on the photo. I enlarged the image and increased the contrast enough to paint from. This painting was a real drill in painting the light and shadows to create the shapes and make him look realistic and a lot different than a fuzzy spec on a photograph. There are pros and cons among artists about using photographs to paint from, but I could never have painted this fantastic scene without a camera and also a whole lot of luck. Taking Flight is on a11x14 stretched canvas.
Let us pray before we paint,
Jimmie
