Trouble with feather colors.
I ran into some trouble trying to portray a mockingbird singing. Because they “mock” many bird songs, I wanted to show it “singing” a lot of colored feathers. Scientists have recorded a mocking bird singing 180 different songs, one after another without repeating a single one. I ran into difficulty finding the right colors to finish the piece. Frankly, I don’t often think deeply about color theory because feather colors are quite limited. For help, I called my artist professor friend, Susan Aurand, who is a whiz with colors. I provided her with a choice of different colored small feathers. When she saw this piece that I had made, it was almost like she had a paintbrush in her hand, the way she gently placed small, orange, yellow, and red feathers in different places, bringing out the blues and purples. Thank you, Susan! I am going to go back and read my color theory book—it’s buried around here somewhere.