Black Chinned Hummingbird, New Mexico – Commission

This Black-Chinned Hummingbird was painted from a client’s photograph, taken from a rare, head-on flight angle on his Albuquerque porch. The wide-spread wings and frontal pose offer an unusual view of this common New Mexico species. A soft, pastel background was created to complement the original photograph and let the bird’s fine detail take center stage.

ARTIST’S PROCESS: Black Chinned Hummingbird, New Mexico was painted in Procreate on a 13″ iPad Pro using the Apple Pencil Pro. This technique replicates traditional painting’s depth and texture through layered digital brushwork. The process began with careful structural drawing, followed by multiple rounds of color blocking, value refinement, and detail work on feather texture to capture the species’ appearance and temperament. Shadow and light were built up using multiple Procreate layers and specific brushes, while the background was created as an impressionistic interpretation based on the client’s preferences.

CHALLENGE: The greatest challenge was rendering the hummingbird in a fully frontal flight pose — wings spread symmetrically toward the viewer, body foreshortened directly behind. This angle flattens natural depth cues and risks making the bird look stiff rather than airborne. The solution was careful value shifts and shadow placement across the wings and body to preserve dimensional form, combined with subtle asymmetry in feather detail so the pose feels alive and in motion rather than frozen.

SUBJECTS AND THEMES: Wildlife — Nature — Birds — Black-Chinned Hummingbird — Hummingbird in Flight — Birding — New Mexico Wildlife — Digital Artwork — Procreate Artwork — Painterly Realism