June 12 - Since I have been focusing on "eggs" and the critters that hatch from them, it seems fitting in an image discussion, to make a comparison to the "chicken and the egg" question.

In creating a painting, what comes first, the idea, the photograph, the sketch or the painting?  If you asked four artists, you could get four different answers.  I would love to claim that I had this great idea to seek out the perfect robin's nest to represent Spring, followed by the exploratory quest.  That, however, is not how the image presented itself.

As we approached the garage door, there it was...the 2015 nest atop the sensor lights.  Since the nest, in that location, presented a fire hazard, Dave took it down, and set it on a nearby table (hmmmm - idea.) I quickly did the sketch (below), with the nest sitting on a white tabletop, which was actually the first step in this process. (Had I been able to use the camera on my phone, I could also have snapped a picture at this point in time.)

Quick sketch of four robin's eggs in nest - click on image to enlarge

Quick sketch #2 - Protesting from afar - So "robin-like!"

This image was not visually interesting, so I looked around the yard for potential enhancements.  The new apple leaves seemed like a logical Spring addition, but how to include the irritated and watchful mother robin???

 Although she is crucial to the entire nesting and parenting process, the posturing in the middle of the yard, as we violated the nest, was a significant part of this image.  Later I captured another quick sketch to help me document the importance of her actions stomping and squawking around the yard - so "robin-like!!"

I used both of these sketches to plan the painting (see June 8th post for a cropped portion of the final painting.)

So, which comes first?  This time it was:

1.  The discovery (resulting in the idea)
2. Sketching
3.  Research (Retrieval of some previous photographs of apple leaves AND robin's nest) 
4. Research - grass study
5. Color testing - how many different shades of green am I able to mix with the paints I have?
6. Paint
7. Re-paint, re-paint, re-work, etc.............

I wonder what the other three artists that were asked used for their production process!