This intermediate level watercolor tutorial will teach you how to paint a Blue-Headed Parrot. If you are new to painting birds with watercolor, you can still try this, but you might find this tutorial easier to start with.
In this painting we will primarily use wet on wet and edge-softening techniques. For color harmony, select 3-4 colors/pigments that you will use (I used French Ultramarine, Hansa Yellow Light, Pyrrol Scarlet, and Burnt Siena, each from Daniel Smith).
Drawing
I used this picture of a Blue-Headed Parrot as a reference for my drawing. You may do the same, or draw from my finished painting if you would rather. Do not forget to draw lightly and use a kneaded eraser to lighten your marks before painting.
Since the photo is heavily cropped and with poor lighting, I will use the following picture for color matching.
First Layer
We will do this layer in sections: head and body, wing, tail, beak, feet, and branch. For each, we will paint on slightly wet paper, and continue to another section once the previous one is dry. While waiting for paint to dry, you can mix paint for the next section.
Head and Body
First, mix up the paint you will use. I chose to use just French Ultramarine for most of the blue head, and a mixture of French Ultramarine and Pyrrol Scarlet for the shadow under the head. For the green areas, I used a light-yellow green made from Hansa Yellow Light and French Ultramarine and varied the amount of blue to create a green shadow color.
At this point, my paper was slightly wet (after soaking it in preparation), so I did not need to add more water for the first layer, but if you are starting with dry paper, I recommend wetting the area you will paint and letting it dry partially before painting.
Then, paint in colors, starting with blue, and letting the paint spread and flow in the water. Use a piece of paper towel to soak up some of the paint surrounding the eye, to leave the lighter area that will end up grey.
While the blue paint is still wet, paint with green and purple shadow colors, letting them mix and spread somewhat with the blue.
Branch and Wing
If you paint a section that is next to another wet section, the paints will mix, so I let the head and body section dry before continuing. Since the branch and wing are separated, we can paint one right after the other.
For the branch, paint water in the area you want the branch to be (using a small brush to carefully go between the toes). Then, paint your brown mixture (I used Burnt Siena with a drop of French Ultramarine) on the top of the branch. The initial layer of water will allow the color to spread downward with a soft, undefined lower edge. This style of branch is nice as it draws the focus to the bird and is a uniquely watercolor method.
For the wing, first paint the area with a small amount of water, then use the same light and dark greens you made earlier. Cover the wing with light green, then brush in a few strokes of dark green in the shadow region. More color and detail will be added later.
Tail
When the bordering regions of the tail are dry, wet the tail and mix up red and green paint. I used unmixed Pyrrol Scarlet and the same light green mixture as earlier for these colors.
Although red and green will mix to form brown, we will still paint both the colors onto the wet paper, so that their transition is smooth. First paint the red area, then use green for the rest of the tail, as shown in the picture.
Beak
Continuing with a similar procedure, first paint the beak with water, then add color. For grey, I used French Ultramarine and Burnt Siena. I suggest painting grey on the dark edges of the beak, and using a small brush to push the color around, so that you can control the areas of highlight. Drop in a bit of red to the upper portion of the beak and let in mix with the grey.
When the beak’s first layer is dry, finish it with several quick layers of shadow and softening (If you prefer, you can skip this part while your beak dries and come back to it later).
Repeatedly add dark grey along an edge in the shadow, and use a clean, damp brush to spread the paint a little, creating a soft edge and a realistic shadow.
Use dry brushing (very little paint on the brush) to paint the details such as the gap between the top and bottom of the beak.
Feet
We will paint the feet in a very similar way to how we painted the beak. The first layer includes a water glaze and grey painted along the shadow edges.
The second layer involves deepening the shadows and using dry brushing to paint the details such as the toe nails and grooves.
Finishing the Tail
We will use a series of quick layers to add depth and shadow to the tail. First, we will work with a dark green.
Paint along the edge in the way shown in the picture, and use a clean brush to soften the lower/right edge, pulling some of the paint from the edge. Repeat this 2-3 times, so that the green is as dark as you want it.
Similarly, with the red, paint along the lower edge, and spread the paint upward, forming a gradual transition to the area of highlight. After a couple layer of this, use a redish brown (red mixed with a little green) to add a darker shadow on the bottom.
Finally, use dark green to add a bit of a shadow under the wing, as shown in the following picture.
Second Layer (for head, body, and wing)
A second layer will add depth, and vividness to the head, body, and wing.
Starting with the head and body, first paint on a water glaze over the entire area that you will add paint to. Then paint in light and dark green on the lower body, and blue and purple on the head and neck. Use the darker colors to form shadows, and the wet-on-wet technique should make it easy to form gradual transitions with these colors. You do not need to cover the entire head with a second layer (I left the top right portion without as it is a highlight area.
Similarly, with the wing, paint a water glaze before adding more of both light and dark green.
Finishing the Wing
A significant amount of detail can be added with the simple shadow and soften method. To do this, first paint a dark green, curved line where one feather overlaps another. While the paint is still wet, use a clean, damp brush to spread the shadow slightly to create a soft edge on one side while leaving a hard edge on the other. If you are unfamiliar with this technique, you may want to try it on a separate paper first, so that you do not accidentally ruin your parrot painting.
Continue with this method to add as many feathers as you like (I added about as many as I could see in the reference image). You can also use this to create additional depth in the feathers or shadow on the wing.
This finishes the painting of a Blue-Headed Parrot with watercolors.
