Blue tits

When is a painting an original, all one's own work? To what extent may one make use of images or ideas that one finds elsewhere - e.g. on the Internet?
This painting of Blue Tits is a case in point. The idea for this painting came from a photograph taken by Mark Hamblin, It was a perfectly good photograph, and would have made a fine painting; but I did not wish to copy it slavishly; and I also wanted to include more detail in some areas.
So, the concept - blue and yellow birds and blue and yellow clothespegs.  I did not use Mark's birds: I searched for other models, and found two more based on a further pair of photographs. The bird feeder is a composite - the net, its contents, and the twine, are all from separate sources.
As for the clothespegs - I must thank my wife for those!


First  - the peanuts! One at a time; CarbOthello and Derwent pastel pencils, on Pastel Mat.

Then the first birds:

Background blocked in loosely, after much of the detail has been done - don't want any smudging.

A more completely shaded background, moving from my workhorse Rembrandts to Sennelier.

There is still some detail to refine - tomorrow!