The first buds of spring really sang out to me the year I drew this. The bud's swelling seemed magical and I wanted to put my nose right up next to them to get a closer look. The day was brown and grey and it seemed like the green buds were popping out of a dead stem. I carefully cut a budding stem, hoping it wouldn't be missed too badly by the tree, and brought it inside. My husband, George, had bought a set of camera extension tubes for a birthday several years before, and they allowed me to see this beautiful set of buds extremely close-up.

This is the drawing I did of those lovely buds I found that spring day.

The swelling of buds and the magic of spring inspired me to add something more to my realistic drawing. The idea of a tiny bird perching on one of the buds popped into my mind and I visualized a tiny nesting hole, too.

To draw the scene, I made a tiny bird out of clay and sat it on top of one of the buds. To help make the lighting more realistic, I set it up in the same light the buds were originally drawn in. The little clay bird wasn't perfect, it was just a general bird shape but it was enough to give me some realistic looking clues about shadows and form.

Because the buds were highly detailed, I found some photos of birds and tried to add as many realistic looking details to mine as I could.