I met a gentleman at the Art on the Lake art show that I did in August in Big Bear.  He is a birder.  He requested a custom order of a Mountain Quail - life size and framed.  

For some reason I had difficulty with the colors of this quail.  In the picture I was working from, the lower body of the quail looked very maroon or purple.  I really struggled because red is a very hard color to work with in glass.  They claim that in the glass paints I work with red is not mixable.  Meaning you can't mix it with another paint color to create another color.  I have actually had mixed results with this theory.  

My first attempt at this quail which is an 11-1/2" square tile came out too pale.  The "maroon" came out peachy and the gray upper body was just too light.

Pale Quail - close up.

So, after agonizing over the color and testing a dozen more mixes, I thought I could get a better match.  I discussed it with the client and he said the magic words - "it really is a little more brown".  Well, apparently my computer was playing tricks with the colors.  So, I looked the quail up in a different, more detailed, bird book and they described the color as "chestnut".  BINGO - that made sense and finally broke my losing streak.  

The finished quail came out great.  I got it mounted in the frame and delivered to the happy customer. 

Mountain Quail Close Up