Pink and Triumphant Update

Well got a little farther on each of these.  I like having both of them to go back and forth on because they are intense and it gives me a break, just in a different way.
Really wanting to add more color to Pink's head for definition, as it comes back down into the body it will get lighter pink then blending to white in some of the feathers.  Am now going to add in the neck/chest feathers and then decide how much darker/more color I want to add into the head.  Think that the shadows still need to get darker so that they pop out the highlights more, also shadows needs to be much more precise and delicate to try to make the feathers look fluffy.
I added in the sky tones in the background on the Osprey, Triumphant, and used pastels because of their blendability.  Also I can then use a CP to make sure that the sky tones come right into the feathers and don't leave that pasted on white line around the bird.  I will work over it and lighten the whole sky back up once I get the bird itself done.  Again, what I am looking for is a soft, fluffy clouded sky.  I am using an acrylic sheet of clear plastic as a hand rest, but it still will smudge and weigh down the pastel.  Might work to just freshen it up some using a brush as well, but got a long time to think about it as the bird is pretty intricate and it is slow going.  He has a a pretty defined pattern. 
Not sure at this point if I really like the sky color blue.  This is an indoor picture so before I completely change it out I am going to get an outdoors shot.  With more light the sky might not look tooo blue.  Since we had the first blast of winter we haven't gone out, but supposed to get a bit warmer later in this week, so.......  Just cold enough to get the first fire of the season in and make it snuggy.
Thanks much for stopping by and hope you had a great weekend and a good week to come.