W&N watercolours on Visual 200gsm
Southern Red Bishop Euplectes orix
Indigenous to Africa (south of equator)
My Red Bishops have just come into their breeding colours and some of the juveniles are a decidedly mottled lot! There’s a lot of fighting and chattering going on, trying to establish dominance and vying for the best spots in the garden.
This little chap obligingly sat for a session while I did a quick outline sketch and then hurriedly added some colour before he flitted off again on some serious business or another.
What a cunning mixture of sentiment, pity, tenderness, irony surrounds adolescence, what knowing watchfulness! Young birds on their first flight are hardly so hovered around!
- Georges Bernanos
