Jeff West Digital watercolour jackdaw and tomato sketch
This digital watercolour piece is a quick experiment with Photoshop brushes. I made a pencil sketch one lunchtime, when I dropped part of my meal—a cherry tomato. An inquisitive jackdaw took the opportunity to also grab a snack.
Initial sketch
I saw the jackdaw observing me, unfazed by my presence. I had time to grab my sketchpad and pencil and loosely capture its cheeky charm.
Starting the artwork
I scanned and cleaned the pencil sketch, applied a watercolour paper overlay for authentic texture. Some standard watercolour hues gave me a baseline swatch palette for colouring the canvas.
Final artwork
I layered and washed the colours to simulate traditional watercolour effects. Overpainting with more opaque hues to give a feel of the reflective parts of the anatomy, such as beak, legs, eyes and skin.
Socials publication
“Inspired by a lunchtime encounter with fauna and flora. My cherry tomato de-forked and made an escape bid. Eagle-eyed jackdaw saw a chance to pick up one of his 5-a-day.”
