I tried painting a bird for once!

This is a birthday gift for my dad, who when I was little trained the California scrub jay living in our yard to come when called and take peanuts out of his hand.

Fun fact about scrub jays, they are one of the most intelligent animals on earth, and their brain to body size ratio rivals that of humans. They create around 200 caches in a season, and remember exactly where each one is, what's in it and how decayed it is. All birds in the jay's greater family, corvidae, are the only animals other than primates and dolphins proven to plan ahead for the future. (sorry, I'm a nerd)

I watched a dozen tutorials on youtube to learn some new techniques involving acrylic medium to use for this, and I'm happy with the result! I might paint some more birds sometime, it was a fun learning experience.