Watercolour and Gouache Portrait With Hummingbirds.

I had so much fun creating this painting, mainly because I found the idea that the client had was so bonkers, it was great.

The brief for this portrait was to paint the person so that you could see up their nostrils, and to have hummingbirds 'nesting' in and around their nose. The reason I was told, is that when this person snores, they sound just like hummingbirds. They wanted me to capture this idea, ready to gift this person the portrait for their birthday! It's absolutely the most unique idea I've been given for a portrait and I couldn't wait to get started on it.

I played around digitally to get the right composition, and finally settled on using the curly moustache as a perch for a couple of the hummingbirds, with the rest flying around the nose. My favourite is the hummingbird just having a little peek in to one of the nostrils!

Created on cold pressed watercolour paper using Winsor & Newton professional watercolours and Designers gouache. To help capture the 'glittery' and reflective quality of hummingbird feathers I used metallic inks so they catch the light at certain angles, just like the feathers.