Believe it or not, this is an attempt at a more “artistic” and slightly less realistic drawing–the first of a series of native Minnesota birds. I was going to color it in strictly monochromatic shades of slate blue, since the stark look it lends itself so nicely to kingfishers, but female kingfishers have that spectacular belt of copper on their breast that is so complimentary to the slate, so with one thing and another, I ended up expanding my palette to slate blue, black, white, and copper. The bark of the tree was done almost entirely in black, with a few touches of slate to tie it in better to the birds–no white at all, except on the hard wood where the bark has peeled away. I love playing with the varying textures in trees, and this dead branch was a pleasure to do, especially with the freedom to leave out most color.