The female goldfinch (top) is looking around the feeder to see what the male finch (bottom) is doing. The feeder is surrounded by by a burning bush with fall foliage.

We keep a finch feeder filled year round as I love to watch these beautiful birds from my dining room window. I chose to place the feeder in burning bushes because I like the contrast of the red and because there were some that had turned red and I could draw them live. The finches were based on a photo that I'd taken.

After sketching the image, I painted it with pastels and then sprayed it with fixative. I created the final layer with colored pencils. I use this combination often as I like the softness of the pastel and the detail that the colored pencil can bring.