Below is the under painting. Done quickly in the background to just give enough idea of some farm outbuildings and also on the foreground below the geese. More care was taken when painting the three birds.
Apart from highlighting the posts and a few other marks, no further work was done on the background farm buildings.
This was followed by the mid and then the light toned colours of the straw on the ground below the geese, some patches of green grass was added before the final highlighted straw was added.
Before starting on the geese, their shadows were painted. Then each bird was painted. Starting on the left with mid and light shadow colours, along with reflected colour (from straw and sky) where needed. The final pure white of the bird was then painted, again where required, leaving some of the 'almost' white under painting to blend into the shadow areas. The same technique was used for the right hand bird and the white/shadow areas of the centre one. The central bird had some grey patches which were painted next, working from dark to light to create the shape/form of the head and feathers on the back/side of the bird.
Finally, the painting of the bills, eyes and legs completed the painting.
Oil. Alistair Butt © 2008.