I have received a lot of requests for more step by step illustration demonstrations. In this one I have emphasized the pencil technique that gives the bird texture. Note the direction of the pencil strokes. I stroke each feather group separately, indicating the direction the the feathers lay. I cross hatch these strokes with lines that show the edges of the rows of feathers. If you are going to see the pencil strokes, have a reason behind the lines.
I have received several requests for more step by step guidance on drawing birds. I have started adding a touch of white colored pencil over dry watercolor and I really like the results. Note how much this illustration tightens up when I add the white pencil and the dark Verathin pencil lines at the end. Make sure the watercolors are dry between coats. The paper also needs to be bone dry before adding colored pencils or the pencils will tear the paper. Study the two animations below then download the bluebird painting study sheet, print it out on heavy paper and try it yourself.
There are a few conventions that help illustrators make useful identification drawings for field guides. Real birds do not look like the illustrations in field guides. The field guide illustration is an attempt to average characteristics of many individuals into a "typical bird". This bird does not really exist. There is tremendous variation between individuals even within a single sub-species. If you can scan study skins in a scientific collection you will see this variation immediately. Start looking for differences within a common species and you will see this variation as well. For the purposes of a field guide illustration it is helpful to average and blend characteristics between individuals. I do not recommend this when field sketching where the goal is to observe accurately and record what you see.
In field guide illustrations, the light source is usually from the top left corner and the bird is often placed facing into the light so that the patterns and colors of its breast will not be in shadow. Shadows are deemphasized so that they are not confused with patterns and colors. Just enough to convey the contours and volume of the bird. Background details are often deemphasized and are arranged so as not to obscure important details on the birds.
Birds are often shown in similar positions, often in profile allowing viewers to compare proportions without the confusion of foreshortening.The illustrator needs to strike a balance between standardizing the positions of the birds to help viewers compare between drawings and showing characteristic and lively postures.
Shadows are an important part of a successful painting. If you paint them at the end, they will feel like an afterthought and may muddy your colors. These last minute shadows may feel blotchy and inconsistent. Most importantly, it is difficult to add highlights at the end of a watercolor painting. Even if you can lift out color, you can never get as bright as the untouched paper. Try painting the shadows first. Once they are dry, you can over-paint the local color and your painting is complete!
Here I begin with a strong line drawing of a Bohemian Waxwing in a thicket of winter branches. Note that the line-work varies across the drawing. I use heavy lines for the outline of the bird and the branches that are in the foreground. By using lighter lines and less detail in the background, the elements behind the bird recede. Avoid using the same pencil pressure across the whole drawing.
Once the bird is sketched in, observe where the light is coming from or decide where the light will be coming from if you are drawing in the studio. Here, it comes from the upper left. Shadows will be soft on a cloudy day and hard edged in direct sunlight. Paint in your shadows using a dull purple gray. Here I have mixed Daniel Smith Shadow Violet (similar to DS Moonglow) and a little bit of Winsor-Newton Neutral Tint. Visualize the roundness of your subject as you paint. Make decisive choices keeping clean highlights. Note that the darkest part of the shadow is next to the highlight on the chest. Also there is a thin rim of light along the right side of the bird. Indicate texture at the edge of the shadow area. Do not always blend shadows to a soft feathered edge. Shadows will often end in a clean line where the planes of the subject turn.
Be careful with cast shadows. They can work for you, suggesting branches outside of the picture frame and can help describe the form of your subject. Note how the cast shadows curve across the branch and the breast of the bird showing roundness. However, cast shadows can also make your subject look like it has stripes in places that they should not be.
Now paint your colors directly on top of the shadow. Be careful to leave part of the highlights unpainted. The subject and the background will both be illuminated by the same light source. Incorporate some of the background color into the foreground subject. Here, a warm golden brown infuses the whole painting.
Watching birds in flight is thrilling. The wings of small birds flap too quickly for the eye to catch. If all you see is a blur, draw the blur. Large soaring birds such as raptors, gulls and ravens hold their wings still and often return to similar positions, making it possible to draw them in flight. Just as in drawing perched birds, there are three elements to block in before adding any details: posture proportions, and angles.
Start by drawing the axis of the body and the angle at which the wings cross it. If the bird is directly overhead, these may form a right angle. If the bird is coming or going, these lines will cross at an angle.
Build a flight frame over the posture noting the width of the wings, thickness of the body, length of tail, and proportions of primary to secondary feathers.
Cut in the negative space angles around the head, wingtips, and tail-wing angle. These angles are critical. Carve them in to sculpt the bird before adding any detail.
These three steps will help you block in the necessary shapes to accurately draw birds in flight. Lock in the overall shape before adding any details. Once details are down on the paper you are unlikely to let yourself go back and modify your basic proportions.
If you live in the Bay Area, try heading out to Hawk Hill to sketch the raptor Migration.
One of the best ways to train yourself to rapidly draw birds in the field is to practice at home with clear sharp photographs. Set a timer and give yourself one minute for each sketch. Do not worry about details but concentrate on getting the basic shape or silhouette. Give it a try. Stop what you are doing now and give it ten minutes. Try doing ten more each day for a week and watch your speed and ability to capture the shape of a bird improve. My favorite site for quality bird photos is Robert Royce's Bird Photography Pages.
I start by capturing the posture of the bird (axis of the body). Then add an oval for the body and a proportionate circle for the head. I stop and double check the proportions before I go on. Then I add lines showing the angle of the beak and tail. Now focus on the edges of the bird and carve in the angles around the head and tail. It may help to focus on the negative shapes you see beyond the bird rather than the bird itself. Think "posture, proportions, and angles".
The way that pigments mix (subtractive color mixing) to produce colors is different from the way that colored lights mix (additive color mixing). The connections between these two systems are elegant if you use cyan, magenta, and yellow as pigment primaries instead of red, yellow, and blue.
Cyan, magenta, and yellow are the true primary colors for pigment (see blog Reinventing the Wheel: Why Red is not a primary color). These combine to make darker secondary colors red, yellow and blue, resulting in black when all three pigments are combined. Lights work the opposite way. Red, yellow and blue are the primary colors for light. When two colored lights overlap, they produce lighter secondary colors, cyan, yellow or magenta. When all three are combined, they make white light. What is exciting here is that pigments and light share the same color wheel- it is only that the primary and secondary colors are reversed.
If you are using the traditional pigment primaries, red, yellow and blue, the relationship between additive and subtractive color wheels is confusing. Why would they share red and blue as primary colors but not the have one primary that is different (green or yellow)?
Ever had a painting turn to mud when you try to mix colors? The good news is it is not you. Conventional color theory using red, yellow and blue does not work. It will turn your pictures to mud and frustrate you as you struggle to mix colors that are impossible with this color triad. The same goes for the split primary system where you mix with a warm and cool version of each primary. The split primary system works much better than just using the three primaries but it misses the point about how colors really mix and what the true primary colors are. What are the real primary colors? Just ask your printer, Cyan, Yellow, and Magenta. Before you write me off as a heretic, read on, try a few simple color mixing experiments at home with your colored pencils watercolors, opaque paints and see for yourself. By changing the way you think about primary colors, your ability to mix colors will improve overnight.
Red is not a Primary Color I often see red and blue included in paint sets and on color wheels as a primary color. A bright fire engine red is usually shown as the red and some form of navy blue such as ultramarine stands in for the blue. Neither of these colors are primaries. A few quick tests will prove it. First, let's mix red from other colors. You will need a clear magenta and a bright yellow. As you start to add magenta to yellow you will see the mixture turn orange, then red. If you can mix red, it is not a primary color.
There are also colors that you can not mix using red. Let's start with magenta itself. You can not mix the yellow out of red to create magenta. The same is true of hot pink. If you dilute red, either with water or white you do not get pink. You get light red. Hot pink comes from diluted magenta. You can not mix vivid purple by combining red and blue. The combination is a bruise colored dull purple. Vivid purple is the result of combining magenta and cyan (or blue). You need to have a good magenta in your palette. My favorite is Daniel Smith Quinacridone Pink. If you are using prismacolor pencils, the magenta color is called process red (just to add to the confusion). Continue reading
The Winsor & Newton Cotman Sketcher's Pocket Box is an excellent little palette. It is inexpensive, sturdy, and small enough to bring on a backpacking trip. It is good straight out of the box. However, with a little customization, it will serve you even better. The original pigments are student grade. As you use them up, replace them with artist grade paints. You can buy new half pans in any art supply store. You can also discard the pans and squeeze tube colors into the spaces in the palette.
To make a big improvement in the palette, replace these paints.
As you use up the pigments in the set, consider also replacing these colors with these alternates.
I suggest reordering the pigments so that similar colors are aligned with the mixing areas on the fold out lid. There are two rows of six colors. In the first row I would place (in this order) Winsor Yellow, Quinacridone Magenta, Cobalt Blue, Sap Green, Yellow Ochre and Winsor Violet Dioxazine. On the Second row I would place Quinacridone Gold, Winsor Red, Phthalo Blue, Perylene Green, Burnt Umber, and Neutral Tint.
If you have a tube of yellow watercolor (Hansa Yellow light or Winsor Yellow) put a small dab of this color in the green mixing area so you can blend with this as you mix your greens. This will help you to keep your yellow pan clean as you mix your greens or browns.
When you first open new pans, the cake of color can easily fall out of the pan. To fix this problem, wet the back of the cake and place it back in the pan, wet side down. The damp watercolor will work like glue.
If you are frustrated by the pans themselves jumping out of the sketcher's box, place a dab of Elmer's glue or a piece of double sided tape under the pan.
Creating Naturalist Notebook pages for Bay Nature makes one more opportunity for me to get out in nature and draw to learn. Consider subscribing to Bay Nature Magazine to learn more about bay area natural history.
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