Society Finch Genetics Chart Project

[Icearstorm]

I am thinking about assembling a chart of society finch icons displaying a variety of mutations and mutation combinations. The chocolate self is complete, and layers are separated so I can change color and create icons for chestnut, fawn, pied, etc more easily (will have to figure out how to use the color replacement tool on the chest scalloping first). This process might take a while, but I'll work on it and see how it goes.
There are several mutations without many photos online; if anyone has photos of juvenile society finches of known genetics or any society finches with less common mutation combinations, I'd be interested in seeing them.
I could share the actual Photoshop CS5 file once I add the layers for pied. The chart is intended to be shared, so I will be putting my completed work under Creative Commons Attribution (maybe Derivative, too). Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like smart objects can be made from work paths in this version, but these are only meant to be icons, so less detail should be fine.
I'll either be making a fawn self or chocolate pied next. On second thought, I should probably lighten up the eye ring first so it's more obvious at a smaller size.

[Fraza]

Here’s a pure white,pearl and chocolate
https://i.imgur.com/YcI56NK.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/qKEyp2m.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/ZcvQLeb.jpg





Coco-grey pearl https://imgur.com/gallery/2zZ9E
I don’t know this mutation is it normal pied split for selfhttps://imgur.com/gallery/IcJSk

[Icearstorm]

Fraza

Thank you! I can't see the last photo for some reason.

[Fraza]

Ohright sorry and ur welcom, also I thought u might want a white one. To do a drawing plz send me photos of the finished project I want to see the graphic copy of my birds and others

[Icearstorm]

Fraza

I'll be posting the completed pieces on my DeviantArt. I'm not sure how I would color the pearls since there's more of a gradient, but I should figure it out eventually.

[Fraza]

Icearstorm yeah I didn’t think about that but I’m looking forward to the outcome I’m interested in this stuff tooo so enjoy viewings them

[Icearstorm]

Fraza

Will do!

[wilkifam]

First picture looks more Black Brown Euro than Chocolate Self.

[Icearstorm]

wilkifam

I tend to use "chocolate self" to mean any brown society with no pied feathers, kind of like people say "hawk" when referring to both hawks and buzzards.
It appears that the colors are slightly different on this browser than in my Photoshop file. I'll probably end up going back and choosing a lighter brown that shows up better on the web. As for the scalloping, filling the area in white or cream at 30-40% opacity could make it appear less strongly patterned for the American birds.
Cheek markings as in the American's are also an issue of detail. A gradient might look a little weird with the rest being flat-colored, and any other pattern could be more difficult to translate to other mutations.
As far as resolution goes, the size is yet to be decided on. This might work for a chart; I imagine it's around 200 or 300 px:

image.jpeg (6.88 KiB) Viewed 4441 times

With this level of detailing, breast feather edging would be difficult to notice, and could take away from the simplified look. Overall, the American color series is less conductive to simplicity than the Euro. On the same note, I probably could have used a flat grey for the belly color for either population, 40-50% neutral for the Euro and 20-30% warm for the American.
I'm not going to be changing the body type with the mutations, so I chose something that could work for either American or European selfs. Not as stocky as some of the large Euro birds, but not tiny, either. This is the size I see the most with the pied birds in my area. The back of the head does seem a bit too big, so I'll probably end up taking some out.