Cardinal on Guard, Pastel Painting and Photos

I painted a cardinal in pastel.  That was fun.  Because I like painting in red, I thought that would be something new I could try. 

On Guard, Pastel on Pastel Artists Panel, 5 x 7 inches.  

This cardinal is in an auction on dailypaintworks.com.  You can click on the link to see how the auctions work and to bid on the painting.

I ordered this new Pastel Artists Panel from Dakota Art Pastels. They are similar to Colourfix sanded paper from Art Spectrum.  They are not really what I would consider a panel.  They are made on stiff watercolor type paper.  I did an under painting with pastel, brushing it with water.  It worked well and you could put them in photo frames with a stiff illustration board behind it.  To put it against the glass like I like to do, Gene will have to put the illustration board or foam core behind and tape it all to the glass.  Pastelbord works so much easier for that type framing. 

They will work fine for these quick small paintings.  They won't be framed unless requested.

We have quite a few cardinals around the bird feeders.  They are a bit territorial. 

 You can see in these photos that the Eastern Bluebird was at the feeders. 

Then a Cardinal came by.

and then .... the fight started.   Can you see the bluebird?

 Finally the Cardinal began his vigil.  Then he got on the feeder and I painted from that photo.

We also had this amazing hawk flying around.  Beautiful steel blue color.