Wise Young Gambel's Quail

The Palette

“thirty-two layers of dry brush for that crest, give or take.”

“A close study of a Gambel's Quail's iridescent crest.”

I drew this one from a photograph I took on a hike in southern Arizona. Quails are oddly dignified birds — they always look like they're considering something profound — and I wanted the painting to feel like a portrait. The background was painted wet-into-wet in one sitting, then the bird was layered over many evenings of small, dry-brush passes for the feathers.