Watercolor and colored pencils act well as standalone media, but also when combined. Watercolor easily covers large areas and gives the painter a fun looseness and freedom, but can be more difficult for creating details. Colored pencils, on the other hand, excel at details, but are tedious for large artworks. In this tutorial, I’ll show…
Continue reading Magpie-Jay in Watercolor and Colored Pencils (Part 1)
In this tutorial, we will paint an Amazon Kingfisher with watercolors. Since the process is quite similar to that of the oriole, grosbeak, I will mainly specify parts of the process that are unique to this subject; you are encouraged to check out those tutorials as well for more details if you would like. Here…
In this colored pencil tutorial, I will overview the steps and a few details for drawing a Western Tanager. You may find it helpful to use this tutorial series as reference, for more details on each step in the process. I will be working on Arches hot press watercolor paper, with Polychromos colored pencils, but…
The following is a tutorial for creating a watercolor painting of two hummingbirds and an orange flower cluster, combining several reference photos and implementing color theory for a vibrant result. The process takes some time (about 4-5 hours), if you patiently work the layers, I think you will appreciate the result. If you are new…
Continue reading Two Hummingbirds Watercolor Painting Process
In this tutorial, I will show you the steps to take to paint a Blue Grosbeak with watercolors. The procedure will be very similar to that of the Baltimore Oriole painting tutorial, but applied to a different bird and using different colors of course. Using typical watercolor supplies (I’m using cold press watercolor paper), we…
Continue reading How to Paint a Blue Grosbeak with Watercolors
In this tutorial, I’ll explain how to draw realistic bark and apply the same principles to drawing branches or other textured surfaces. Since birds are often perched on bark or other textured surfaces, this will help you better create bird drawings. The main idea is to simplify the object by breaking it up into shapes…
When drawing or painting birds realistically, it is almost always necessary to work from a reference photo. Birds do not sit still; nor do they typically come close enough to observe their details. But with a camera, you can zoom in, freeze time, and save the results. There are plenty of reference images of birds…
The following is a tutorial for how to draw a Blue-Grey Gnatcatcher with Colored Pencils. This is the approach I take for most of my bird drawings and I hope you will find it helpful as well. It is a long process (5+ hours), so I have broken it down into shorter sections, and this…
Continue reading How to Draw a Bird with Colored Pencils – The Colored Pencil Bird Series
This is the fourth article in The Colored Pencil Bird series. As an example, I will show the step-by-step drawing of a Blue-Grey Gnatcatcher, but the tips and techniques included in these articles can be applied to any bird drawing. After this, check out how to draw the feet. The subject for this drawing series…
Continue reading How to Draw a Bird’s Wings and Tail with Colored Pencils
This is the fifth (and final) article in The Colored Pencil Bird series. As an example, I will show the step-by-step drawing of a Blue-Grey Gnatcatcher, but the tips and techniques included in these articles can be applied to any bird drawing. The subject for this drawing series Drawing feet is always intimidating, but it…
Continue reading How to Draw Bird’s Feet with Colored Pencils