This rooster is heavily inspired by a photo provided by the client. They did not want the rooster to be in a natural environment and requested something more plain.
I really enjoyed this project as I don’t usually work with so much color. However, working those tail feathers in that andamento was a challenge.
At left is a photo taken from a perspective slightly below and looking a bit upward. I was trying to capture more iridescence. Tricky. But I like the way you can see a little dimensionality in the rooster feet. The vitreous is thinner than the smalti so he does pop a bit from the background.
As for the edges, the clients were not sure if they wanted to frame it and wanted the edges to be done in a way as to be acceptable without a frame. I did not want to take the vitreous all the way to the edge because that kind of edge is vulnerable to chipping and tiles coming loose over time. I handled it in a manner that I thought was interesting on its own but that could also be covered up with a frame.
The background colors were chosen to coordinate with the countertop, at right.
