The Mourning Dove is a soft bird, with unique coloration. I need to portray that softness and coloration into my painting. I wanted the feathers to have depth and dimension.

When a dove is perched, resting, it fluffs it's feathers out slightly, the challenge here is to give that illusion that the feathers are fluffed.

The contrast between the blue coloration (cool) and the peach or tan coloration (warm) will hopefully work together. Painting is always a series of trial and error. I love the soft blue/gray color against the soft brown/peach color. I will keep going with that and see what happens! Stay tuned!