Painting: Costa's Hummingbird

[Gus Hallgren]

Hi Folks;

Another Costa's Hummingbird from our garden. Painting done using free Fotosketcher. As folks seemed to prefer the one without the border in my last post, I left this without the Stroke.

Comments always welcome and appreciated.

Cheers

Gus

[Brendan Dozier]

Nice one Gus, the BG looks like gold foil

[denise ippolito]

Gus, I added weekly theme to your title as it fits the theme nicely. Beautiful painterly look. The pose and sharp details are a nice touch. I love the BG color and brush strokes.:)

[Keith Carver]

First, I really like the photo on which this was based - perfect angle, sharp head, eyes, bill. Nice capture of a Costa's in flight. But I am conflicted about rendering this as an oil painting. Although I love the BG color, the BG brush strokes are distracting to me. Maybe you could layer mask the Costa's and reduce the opacity of the Fotosketcher layer, so as to give more focus on the bird.

In general and IMO, the DAP and Fotosketcher filters work better for landscapes than they do for birds, especially small fast-moving birds that would never sit still for an oil painting. :) That said, TFS, and I enjoy seeing your work on this beautiful Costa's.

[Gus Hallgren]

Another version with a blue sky added

[Gus Hallgren]

Another with blue sky added

[Gus Hallgren]

Here's original with blue sky added

[Keith Carver]

Gus, I like the ORIG better than the two with blue sky backgrounds, but to be honest I like the bird much better than any of the backgrounds. In the ORIG, the BG at least has enough tonal range to be interesting, which the two blue sky renditions do not. I'm wondering if you could mask the bird in the ORIG, and reduce the intensity of the brush strokes in the BG. Just a thought. I love this little hummer, though!!

[Mark Fuge]

Another nice image and application, Gus.

I like the bordered image, nice painted effect. I personally prefer the brown BG, but then again ... :)

[Gus Hallgren]

OK, let's try this version? Background only done in Fotosketcher.

[Cheryl Slechta]

Gus, I like the first version the most. The colors on the hummer look a little richer IMHO. I do like the bg on the last image a lot.:)

[DanWalters]

Very nice detail and color. Like the background in the first image.

[Patti Edens]

I love them all, but the first one is my favorite. I like that the green on the birds side is also in the background.

[Christopher Miller]

Beautiful, Gus! The first version is my favorite. That golden, green BG is just beautiful and goes very well with the hummer.