Watercolour Bird TUTORIAL Quick and simple
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 พ.ค. 2021
- In this quick and simple watercolour tutorial I talk you through my painting of a Great Blue Heron.
These are one of my favourite groups of birds to paint (all though I do say that about a lot of birds!!). Those beautiful curved necks that create such wonderful shapes, the character, the features, the colours and the way the light bounces around and catches their form. They are such a great painting subject; and for me the freshness and fun of watercolour really lends itself to this sort of subject.
My main aim in this Watercolour Tutorial really is to try and keep things simple, keep them fresh and as a result the painting comes out fairly quickly.
I ask myself the question, "what can I leave out?", as much as I do, or more so even, than, "what can I put?"
So much of the joy of watercolour painting is how much can you say with as little as possible. How much can we capture the light and the character of the bird. The details are just decorations on top.
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Happy Painting!!
T
Hop over and join me on Patreon for a huge library of watercolour birds along with loads of other subject matter and mediums. Everything from time-lapses, narrated paintings, technique and theory tutorials, live streams and of course full length / real-time paintings.
/ tomshepherdart
---Reference Photo---
Taken from unsplash.com
/ 51482370
--- Materials ---
Colours:
- Ultramarine replacement
-Pthalo Blue (Not essential - very cool, you could replace with indigo or Prussian)
- Quinacridone Red (any cool red e.g. magenta, Aliazrin Crimson, Scarlet etc)
- Pyrole Red (not essential - warm red like Cadmium, Vermillion, Napthol etc)
- New Gamboge Yellow
- Aureolin Yellow
- Turquoise Blue by Holbein
Paper:
Canson, Moulin Du Roy - 100% cotton, coldpress
9" x 12"
Brushes:
Size 0 Jackson's Raven Mop - Faux Squirrel
Size 10 Synthetic round brush - ProArte Prolene
--- Links to me ---
/ tomshepherdartist
/ tomshepherdart
www.tomshepherdart.com/
/ tomshepherdart
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--- Series Details ---
This easy to understand painting tutorial is designed for watercolorists of any ability or experience level.
I try to cover some basic watercolour theory that applies to all subjects, as well as some bird specific tricks & tips to help you improve and progress your own watercolour paintings.
I try to use a simple approach these watercolours as we are looking for great results but with freshness and excitement to the way we use the paint.
These painting tutorials are designed mostly for watercolorists, with a mixture of theory as well as some how to painting guides. We cover lots of foundational principles to help students progress their painting. - แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
Thanks for watching! Is there a bird you would like me to pop on the list? Let me know below :)
Join me on Patreon:
www.patreon.com/TomShepherdArt
Zoom Demos (watch live or for 7 days after):
www.tomshepherdart.com/zoom-demos
----Reference Photo----
Taken from unsplash.com
www.patreon.com/posts/51482370
definitely FLAMINGO!!! :) thx in advance ;)
Starling please! 🙏
You show good control. I’d be lost. You’re very focused. Love your style. Lovely❤
Love this guy Tom! One of my favorite birds too! Thank you for sharing!
Thank you for showing us your process. Excellent art!
I loved this tutorial. Thank you,.
Beautiful work!
Love your bird paintings so much! Very inspirational!
Thank you so much!!:) so glad they are inspiring!!:)
Love love love this combination of abstract and detail ! Thank you!
Thanks so much!!:) T
Beautiful, I did one with coloring pencils. ❤
Thank you so much for sharing your nice tutorial sir.☺️❤️
Hello and God bless you.🙏🏻
I love it 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
I’m happy to have run across your videos! I love the way you paint birds! I’m excited to try your style. My favorite is the snowy owl. I’m going to check out your other videos on birds! Thanks for sharing your talent!
Hi Donna! So glad you can join me on here. I hope you enjoy all teh videos. Kind Regards, T
Fun & educational as always - please continue sharing - love & need the lessons. I love birds & you make them special
Thank you so much for such a lovely comment! I appreciate it. T
Stunning!
Thank you so much :)
Beautiful. Love the head shape and how it shows the character of the bird.😊
Thank you so much 😀 it’s the thing I love so much about painting long neck birds...the neck shape is so expressive and gives so much character!!:)
Thank you Tom. I love your work ! I also really appreciate the real time videos so we can see the pace at which to paint. Excellent job. Thanks again
Thanks so much, Glynis! T
Beautiful work and I loved hearing your clear concise commentary of your process!
Thank you so much! T
Love it, thanks🙏🏻
Thank you!!:)
Your bird paintings are pure genius! Thank you for sharing your talent.
Thank you so much!:)
Very beautiful Tom! Love your loose and painterly style! I really enjoy watching your tutorials, you have a wonderful teaching style! I can’t wait to try some of lovely birds! Thank you for sharing!
Thank you so much for the kind words!! Really appreciate it :) good luck with it..really fun one!!
Surely you know this, but you are really, really good at drawing birds. Your paintings are beautiful. Thanks for sharing these tutorials. Love your style
Very interesting to follow your line of reasoning, both instructive and validating.
Thanks so much for a lovely comment! T
First lol. Your video's are so enjoyable and educational. I must paint more birds. There such a lovely subject to draw and paint and they have lots of colour to play with
☺️🙌🏼 thanks so much for the kind words! They really such a great painting subject (all though I am a little bias) T
Absorbing all your pearls of wisdom about light and shadow and minimal information and and and... fabulous teacher. My brain hurts. Need to let it sit and ruminate.
Haha not hurting too much I hope!! So glad you are getting lots from them! T
Awesome works
Thank you so much. T
Thank you. Birds eyes are difficult for me. I like your point of view and will keep working on my birds.
They are tricky. Simple is best usually! Keep going with them :) T
This is beautiful. Fabulous to watch you work - thanks. I'd love to see you paint a New Zealand takahe or kakapo, or a Tasmanian native hen :)
OO yes, great choice, thank you:) T
Another stunning painting Tom! Just love it totally ❤️. Cheers from Western Australia 😍❤️😘🥰😊💕
Ahhh thank you so much!!! ☺️🙌🏼🙏
Lovely painting and so interesting tutorial! Thank you so much Tom
Thanks so much, Roberta!! Really appreciate your support. T
@@tomshepherdartist😅
I love your bird tutorials ! I Would really like to see you paint a Little Egret … These elegant white birds used to be rare on the west coast of the UK where I live , but now I see them as often as Herons! I’m wondering how to tackle a completely white bird?
I really loved watching and listening to you explaining your process.You are making me appreciate watercolour paiting in a very different way! Thank you so much for taking the time to make these videos. Only we miss some part of your work when you do your magic with the little details (like in the head of this one) you might have to consider making some close ups or zooming the camera , anyway your are doing an excellent job.congratulations and thanks agin!
Thanks so much for a lovely comment!! Great idea on the head details, I’ve zoomed in n a couple previous videos but keep forgetting...will definitely do so in future :) T
Hello, im 13y old and im starting in watercolor, I looove birds and landscape and you are an amazing channel that I like to see! So simple and beautiful paintings, this looks so easy! I really am excited to try this out! Do you have any drawing of a blackbird in your channel? Love from Portugal! 🥰❤
Hi there! Thank you for lovely comments. Exciting to be starting out with watercolour, it’s such a fun medium. Good luck with this one and have fun. I don’t have one of blackbird I’m afraid, but I will be doing another one :) T
Awesome! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
May I request a tutorial on the PHILIPPINE TROGON bird. I think their colours are stunning! They are even used as an inspiration for some mythical stories or folklore in the Philippines. Thanks and keep up the great work! 😁🙏🏼
You may indeed!! Thank you. I have to be honest and say I don’t know them, but look forward to looking them up later. I love the role of birds in mythology and folklore. Not something I talk about lots on here but planning to at some point!...thanks for a great suggestion!!:) T
I’m excited! 😁 Thank you so much! 🙏🏼❤️
I found you through Liron Yanconsky's interview with you today (July 6th/21) I loved the way you paint birds. Could you do a North American Bald Eagle. I live on Vancouver Island in Canada. These birds are a daily part of my day. They never cease to amaze me.
Thanks so much! Oh wonderful, yes I’d love to give that a go. I’ll stick it on the list!! What a wonderful bird to have as a part of daily life🙌🏼
I was wondering where Moulin du Roy paper went. I used to get it at Hobby Lobby in the US and really liked it. Then they discontinued it and I couldn't find it anywhere. Looks like Canson must have taken it over. Fabriano Soft Press seems similar or the Lanaquarelle. I'll bet giving this one a try. It's beautiful.
Ahh, that's interesting. I've only ever know it as Canson paper. I do love it though. I don't know Fabriano soft press, I will look it out and give it a try. Thank you so much, and enjoy! T
Thank you. 😊
My pleasure..thank you!;)
Hi Tom! I am crazy about your videos and have learned so much from you! Maybe you could make a video about how to paint a golden pheasant or a toucan with watercolour! Cheers!! 💕
Thanks so much for the kind words. So glad it helped. Two great choices, I’ll pop them on the list. T
@@tomshepherdartist You're welcome!! Thanks very much for the time and effort you're putting into these tutorials! I've been painting birds following the steps in your videos and it's been really fun!
I just found your channel, and am delighted by your love of birds and style of painting. Query: can this style be adapted to smaller sizes of painting, as l can't afford to learn and practice on such large pieces of paper, understanding by now that paper quality really matters. Thank you.
Hi Linda, thank you for the comment. Yes absolutely, this is about as small as I paint watercolour at 9”x12” but it is a process that can work at any size :) T
@@tomshepherdartist thank you! These words are all l needed to get me out of a bit of a slump (or Covid - not Corvid! - fatigue).
Your videos are very inspiring! Have you ever done a hummingbird? They have such beautiful colors
Thanks so much!! There is a previous video of a hummingbird :) it should be in the Quick Watercolour Birds playlist on my channel :) T
@@tomshepherdartist thanks, I will go through that playlist!
Very nice. I love your choice of colors and the tutorial was very clear. I love that your hair is visible sometimes.
Tom, when it comes to new gamboge yellow which do you use...the lighter yellowish one or the brownish one? I've used both and much prefer the yellowish one since it's lighter and gives livelier colors.
When I found out I had cancer I could not paint. Not at all. After the the all clear from the doctors it's coming back. Not great but then it never was but it is coming back.
Hi ya Chuck, I personally like the brighter more lively New Gamboge colours, forth same reason! Was so good to red your email...here's to getting back to painting!
I'm obsessed with the Smooth billed Ani...can you paint that?
oh yes!! I love those birds...I'l pop them on the list :) Thank you..T
Thank you for the boring real-time parts, much preferred (by me) to the frantic wharp-speed tutorials that seem so popular.
Haha! I know what you mean. So much to talk about it’s nice to just let it roll in full :)
Tom, I’d like to paint an egret. I have a reference photo with the egret posed very similarly to this. Any advice on how to tackle the challenge of this white bird on white paper would be very much appreciated indeed.
Hi Miriam, Yes, can be tricky. Usually looking for light and shadow is really going to help. Look for the bird in light (probably going to be white of the page of close. Then look for the bird in shadow, gentle/medium shadow and then any other slight darker spots. The bird in shadow can be any colour you like as long as you get the tone of it working nicely (i would generally not go too dark for the shadow of a white bird, but also dark enough that there is some form and contrast.
I like ultramarine and cobalt as a base for white in shadow. You can always drop purples and turquoises in whilst wet to make it more exciting and colourful. You can of course use a muted grey colour but you see I love a bit of colour. And as long as the light areas are very white it will still read as a white bird.
Finally is how to make it standout on white paper. A reasonably dark background to trap the light areas of the bird and shape them (negative shape) is needed. But you don'y really want to paint it all the way around. So some places where the bird is in shadow could be left against a light background. And also some areas of bird in shadow could be painted up to with darker background. Creating this simple light and shadow on the bird and then creating a variation of edges in relation to background allows you to trap the shape of the white bird whilst avoiding the stuck on , or "cut and paste" look ...I hope that helps:)
T
@@tomshepherdartist Thank you so muck for taking the time to give me such comprehensive and insightful advice Tom. It's very much appreciated indeed.
Where can I find tutorial for this beautiful owl from intro? :)
I’m afraid I never recorded that particular one. I do have a couple (maybe more) owl paintings in real time and narration in my Patreon page. They will be available to purchase as one off downloads. But not for another year or so:) T
Could you talk about how you obtain your photo references?
I'll cover this in another video, but in short: This particular one was taken from photo subscription site, which I use often. Ideally I love to work from my own phots and sketches, but for me this is far from always possible and there are so many great resources for artists that use photos.
So as well as taking my own: I use a mixture of paid for photos, subscription sites, public domain and copyright free sites, and I also approach photographers on social media and pay for the use of their photos too (or come to n agreement which suits them)
When looking for photos I don't usually intend to copy it exactly but rather use it for inspiration and a jump off point. The two main things I look for are good or interesting light as this makes things much easier; and also an interesting or exciting pose.
Hope that helps.
Hey, Tom! How about painting a cuckoo bird? 😊
Nice!! I’ll pop it on the list...thank you ☺️🙌🏼
Lovely! Thank you! 🤗
This painting is beautiful but woof, this is not a pleasant tutorial to follow. Nonstop commentary, no real pointers (mine came out looking like a blobby mess), and using milk to describe the opacity? Milk???? What even.
Thanks for the feedback. Checkout the watercolour clock by Joseph Zbukvic. It will give you a clearer idea of paint consistency and what is meant by milk/milky. Good luck!!