Pink Hibiscus and Green-breasted Mango Hummingbird

Here is a fun custom painting that I just finished - a pink hibiscus flower and a green-breasted mango hummingbird.

The green-breasted mango is a tropical bird not common in the United States.  I've never seen one in New England, although they visit southern Texas and have traveled farther north on rare occasions. So I had to do some research to find out what they look like. They are so pretty with iridescent black, green and purple feathers!
I'll show you how I did this painting below:

The client saw my print of a ruby-throated hummingbird and white hibiscus which you can see to the left, and thought something similar would make a perfect Christmas gift for his wife.
She has a pink hibiscus that has been in the family for generations. It withstood a relocation to northern Wisconsin with difficulty, but finally bloomed again this past summer. And she loves hummingbirds!

To do the custom painting, I draw a similar scene and transfer it to watercolor paper. Then I start with the background as I normally do:

Next, I paint pink for the flower, adding blue into the wet paint wherever there are folds in the petals:

The center of a hibiscus is often a deeper color, so I add darker, warmer reds in the center and shadow areas. I draw out some of the wet paint with my brush tip to indicate veins:

The bird has an iridescent blue and black belly and throat and a green body and head:

The tail feathers are an interesting purplish color.  The wings are semi-transparent, so I paint the background color as it would appear through them:

Now I have a decision to make. I think the jeweled tones of the hummingbird and flower would show better against a darker background. But I don't want the entire background to be dark. So I compromise and try painting dark blues and greens just on the lower half:

That seems to work well, so I add more details to finish the painting. You can click the image to see it larger:

I name the painting "Jewels of Summer" because of the sparkling jewel-like colors. In the cold months it will remind the owner of warm summer days when the hummingbirds come to visit her pretty pink hibiscus flowers.

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I'm happy to take custom orders. Contact me for a custom painting of your pet, home, garden, grand kids, favorite vacation spot or whatever your heart desires.
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