Thursday desk photo. What?

Spotted Towhee aka Rufous-sided Towhee

Painting by Tory Brokenshire

I took this photo about a month ago just outside the window of my studio. Rufous is one of my favorites, he lives on the ground in dense thickets hunting for bugs and seeds. But the way he looks for treats is funny he uses the double scratching method by pulling both legs sharply backward at the same time.

I put the photo in photoshop 6 and started to play, having just recently participated in a wood block class I saw his image as a carving with a twist.

Then used a tool called Bass, just a different look but I like the simplicity.

And the next step would be to make a few cards.

But the urge to create with this image was still not satiated so I grabbed a canvas and started to paint.

My original thought was to have a light background because the bird is so dark. But then I thought of the behavior of the bird and how I see him, it is on the edge of dark thick leaves and stems. he is very hard to see at times. The fun began with texture and beautiful rich colors.

As in the photo I painted his tail up, and in his mouth I put a cherry to go with the round shapes behind his head. Darn it just doesn't look right! His mouth isn't big enough to hold a cherry like that, it was a sunflower seed he was eating.
His legs are very thin he would be called "bird legs" and a few colors needed to be tweeked. So I played a bit more...

The finished painting...I love his red eyes.

I'm out of town for a few days to do some art with friends, I hope you find some time to play.