Three in the Dead Tree

PROMPT

POSITIVE:
Natural-history watercolour and gouache study of three great cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo) roosting in the bare forked branches of a dead tree, seen from slightly below. The uppermost bird highest on a thin terminal fork, body in left profile, long neck drawn back into an S and the bill held level. The middle bird lower and to the right on a horizontal limb, seen from behind with wings folded tight and head turned to the right in profile. The lowest bird at the left on a rising branch, hunched with the head drawn down into the shoulders and the tail hanging straight below. Painted on unpainted white paper ground in the scientific bird-plate idiom: many thin transparent glazes, no black outlines, form built entirely from tonal value and controlled edges, individual feather barbs picked out with hairline dry-brush strokes.

Plumage: blackish-brown ground painted as warm neutral tint over an underwash of bronze and bottle-green, so a faint oily sheen rises through the darkness rather than sitting on it — never a flat opaque black. The mantle and wing coverts drawn as neat overlapping scale-like rows, each feather a bronze-brown centre with a crisp darker outline, giving the characteristic fish-scale patterning across the back and folded wing. Breast and belly darker and smoother. Long stiff tail feathers separated and drawn with reserved white shafts.

Heads: long slender necks, small heads, and heavy hook-tipped bills — the bill pale ochre-yellow to warm horn with a darker ridge and a fine hook at the tip, the bare skin at its base a stronger chrome-yellow patch. A little pale feathering at the chin and throat. Small dark eye with a single reserved white catchlight.

Feet: large dark webbed feet with all four toes joined by webbing, gripping the branches, drawn with visible scale texture.

Perch: a bare dead tree, silver-grey and weathered ochre, rising from the lower right and dividing into angular forked limbs and short broken stubs, bark stripped, grain and split ends drawn in fine directional strokes, a few patches of pale lichen. Painted with the same precision as the birds. The limbs thin and fade out on bare paper before reaching the edges.

Palette: blackish neutral tint, bronze, bottle green, warm brown, ochre-yellow, chrome yellow, silver-grey, ivory-white paper. Light: warm and low, from the left.

Ground: plain white cotton-rag watercolour paper, visible cold-press tooth, no sky, no clouds, no background wash, no vignette, no frame, no cast shadow.

Museum-quality ornithological plate finish, archival, hand-painted, fine art print quality. No text, no signature, no species label, no watermark, no photographic rendering, no digital airbrush gradients, no heavy black ink outlines.

NEGATIVE:
(none)

SETTINGS

engine: envato-imagegen
model: -
mode: -
aspect: 2:3
resolution: 2K
count: 1
autoEnhancePrompt: -
quality: -
outputFormat: -
source-id: envato-prompt-cormorants-dead-tree-natural-history-watercolour
generated: 2026-08-15

NOTE

source prompt envato-prompt-cormorants-dead-tree-natural-history-watercolour; render 4d5dbcb5-e0ee-4761-ab43-c29528d10d57-2026-08-15.png