Big Red (gets an Extreme Makeover): Bird Painting by kto ART

BEFORE

AFTER

Hi Everyone! I'm back and feeling pretty good after surgery to remove a benign ovarian cyst... Since I had to undergo a little surgery, I figured I'd do the same for one of my paintings:
This is my version of an Extreme Makeover!

I like routine (when I choose it) and with painting, my routine is: imagine a concept -> draw out that concept -> underpaint the canvas (basically draw the composition with a color of paint that I'll use in the design) -> paint the actual painting. 
When I paint, the painting part usually goes rather quickly. It's the preparatory work that takes the longest. Before I get to the paint-to-canvas stage there's a lot of drawing, composing, imagining... My husband says, "Oh no, she's in Artist Mode." He is a very understanding man ;)

"Big Red" is one of the first bird paintings I created and everything was going well. I thought up the concept, drew out the composition, chose my colors and started painting. It all worked out seamlessly, or so it seemed...

You know that feeling you get when something just isn't right? For example, there was this great surf swell that came in and I went out and broke one of my boards. It happens, move on, right? So the next day it was pumping again and my friend convinced me to go again (with a different board obviously). And I got this little tingle in the back of my brain and up my neck, but I brushed it off and went out. Well, I broke the second board while on my first wave that day and I came in thinking, "Man! I had that feeling. I should have listened to my spidey senses!"

That's kind of what was going on in my head with this painting. Everything seemed fine and the resulting painting looked good, but I got that tingly feeling like something wasn't right. Of course, I ignored my senses and let it go. I brought it to the gallery, but no one really hit on it, and finally someone piped up and said, "this one doesn't quite have the color and personality that you usually put into your birds." And that was it!
 So I took "Big Red" home with me and thought, "maybe just change the background color." And I did. Then I thought, "maybe he needs a little punch of color and the tree needs a pop," so I punched up the color. Then it bothered me that his head almost gets cut off at the top, so I sat and looked and thought and examined the canvas. Finally, I took a big swipe of blue and painted over my cardinal from his head down to his chest and repainted him completely. I also shortened his tail and I had to fattened him up a bit. Only in an Extreme Makeover kto ART Edition does the subject get chubbier!
So now my Spidey Senses have subsided and I feel all warm and fuzzy about "Big Red". He's a keeper:)