Visiting with a Friend

This Marabou Stork resides at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm in Florida. He and the West African Crowned Crane are there to greet you when you visit the Birds of Africa section. I so enjoy painting the birds that do not have a very distinguished look about them and give them a more beautiful place to enjoy. I get the sense this guy is totally content living in St. Augustine although far away from his normal habitat.

Just followed my regular painting workflow from previous blogs. This time added some grain in Topaz (see sidebar for website link) as it gave it sort of a magical old feel. The hardest part about this image was how sharp he appears – very hard to soften his edges and look natural, especially his feet. Topped off the image using my favorite plug-in of all time – Nik Viveza 2……Digital Lady Syd