How to shoot a quail flush

A couple of weeks ago I was asked to do an illustration showing how to shoot a covey of flushing  quail, having never hunted quail I was in  a bit of a quandary. The editor filled me in on all the details and what he wanted to see in the illustration. I went through the regular routine of sketching and composing what I thought would make a good painting. The result is here for you to see. I love this sort of project, It seems I don't get to paint too many hunting scenes these days and I miss them. The painting turned out, for the most part,  how I planned it,  there are always happy accidents that happen along the way that improve things, I call it "controlled spontaneity" the light is interesting, the color does its job and the characters look natural and like they belong in the painting. All in all I am pleased with the painting. I'm going to try to do more work like this, When I started out as an illustrator I did a lot of outdoor sporty sort of illustrations then sort of migrated away from them for other work. Now that I am older and a bit more selective I want to return from whence I came... at least I hope so.

Here is the painting.