Step One

28.11.06
Natalie has been commissioned by Ashdene Manufacturing to paint a Cockatoo Painting to be used on mugs, trays and coasters.  The first step is to obtain good reference material.  After visiting a number of wildlife parks and nature reserves, Natalie was still unable to obtain any decent photo's, poses, lighting etc with which to format a painting.  The problem is that at parks etc, the birds are either to used to people and just sit there bored, or they are stressed and don't act naturally or interact with each other.

So Natalie asked around and some friends knew a person with a cockatoo with a lot of character (George was his name).  So Natalie arranged to visit George in the afternoon so the lighting would be where she wanted it.  That afternoon, she spent an hour with George and took over 150 photographs.  Thank goodness for digital camera's ;-)

Below are some of the images Natalie is thinking of using in the painting.