Ahhh the humble seagull. I don't know if I love them or hate them. On one hand they remind me of the ocean and the soothing sounds of the crashing waves. On the other, they are loud and really pester you if you want to eat something while at the beach. Hmmm.
Well, I guess it doesn't matter, because I love painting them. This one is standing on a bit of a piling, or other piece of old wood.
He was a lot of fun to paint, and I would encourage anyone who has an interest to go ahead and give it a shot. If you need a tutorial on how to do it.... I've got you covered.
I found a picture of this bird while surfing the web nearly a year ago. I printed it out and then it got lost in a drawer somewhere. I found the picture the other day and realized that I needed to paint it. I was thinking what could I do to this picture. There really isn't a lot going on with it. Just a bird standing there.
So much like the beach here where i live, when you look, the beach just kind of disappears in the distance and the sky starts. There is no real line of demarcation. I tried to make this painting resemble that. A nice gentle transition from sand to sky.
As for the bird, i really like everything except its head. I just don't understand what happended there. Love the wing, love the underbelly, like the legs. Head.... meh. Oh, well, I guess thats why they call it practice. Thanks for taking the time to read, and check out the picture. Hope you enjoyed it.
I've been invaded by seagulls!!! Living near the ocean, it's hard not to see seagulls every day. Usually I try to pay them as little mind as possible. For some strange reason, I got a hankering for painting them. Here is what I came up with. One I did on my lunch hour, and one I did in the studio.
There are bits of both that I really like, and bits on both that I wish I could do over again. I'll not go into what things are which, but let you all take a guess at it.
On both of these, I started drawing from the head, and, as it turned out, should have either made the head smaller or started higher up on the page. The bird kind of ran off the bottom of the paper. For me its not a big deal since I don't like painting feet anyway, but it would have made a bit nicer picture if the bird was planted on something.
As in the past, I did make a video of myself painting this seagull. If you have an interest, please check out the video below.
Thanks for the quick read, and I hope you enjoy the paintings.
Ok, the title is a little misleading. I kinda did that on purpose. Every time I put a title like that I get a massive amount of hits to that posting. I am sure the same will happen to this one.
But what I actually have is a Blue Footed Boobie. Fantasticly weird bird. He was fun to paint, and fun to research, I'm gonna keep going with painting odd, different things that most people wouldn't paint. This one is a start. Anyway, he's fun and funny.
I struggled with two things on this painting, and if I had to do it again I would change a few things. First, I would put some green in the lower half of the sky. Make it look like very far away hills. His right foot just gets lost. I don't really like that at all. Secondly, I would barely tap in the shadow that is under him. I got a bit carried away with it in this painting.
I might just have to paint this guy again just to make those changes, or maybe I should do a whole series of paintings of boobies. I'll think about it. At any rate, there is a video that goes along with this one. You can check it out below. Thanks of the quick read, and the view.
I don't think I'll ever be able to get all the way away from painting birds, and I don't think I want to. Like most areas of the country, I've got plenty of sparrows flying around my house. I thought it might be nice to paint one. I think I did one years ago, but they are nice birds and I always enjoy watching them at the feeder and flitting about too and fro.
This isn't any particular sparrow, but one of many that could be around my house. He's just sitting there on a little branch looking for his friends to play with.
He was great fun to paint. If you want to see a video of how I did it, check out the video below.
Back again with another bird painting. This one is a great blue heron. These prehistoric birds are all over the place where I live, and I hope you have them where you live too. Here they stalk the tide pools and seashore looking for small fish to eat. I've even seen them in the fields and on the golf course looking for mice or moles. A big one can stand in excess of 4 feet tall. I don't know what its wingspan is, but its big. They will stand motionless for quite a while waiting for a tasty morsel to come into range. As soon as it does,... Whammo! Thats is. Feeding time.
I've got a nice heron her for you to view. He is in a classic standing stance. Just surveying his surroundings, waiting, biding his time. I've used a healthy dose of cerulean blue in this painting. Used it both in the bird and on the background. The bird itself is tempered with a little mix of my own grey too.
For those of you interested in seeing how I painted it, you can view the action below. Even if you don't give a view to the video, thanks for taking the time to read a bit about this bird. Enjoy the video.
A friend of mine recently moved to Texas. I asked her what the state bird was, and she tole me it was a mocking bird (never looked it up to verify, but I believe her). I felt a wave of bird painting coming on and thought it might be fun to paint. Here is what I came up with.
Its a classic bird shape. Maybe the tail is a little longer than some, but for the most part it follows suit for songbirds in North America.
I looked through a number of pictures of mocking birds before settling on drawing this one. Most of the mocking birds are a light grey to a brown in color. A few, however, had a slight blue tint to them. I don't know if they were juveniles, or if at a certain time of year the feathers look a bit different or what. No matter, I chose to paint mine with a blue-ish tint. I made the eye extra dark. I want the viewer to notice it right away, and looking back at the painting, I think I made the right choice.
Like so many of my painting recently, it is accompanied by a video. So if you want to see how I painted it, check out the video below. Thanks for the quick read. Drop me a line and let me know if you like it or not, or if you'd like to see me paint something specifis.
Alas, that ever present bird has made a comeback on Dabfly Arts. Living by the water, I see them every day. Some days they look like they are having fun floating on gentle ocean breezes, others they look like they are hating life trying to stay warm in a cold winter wind. This guy falls into the former category. He is definitely loving life. Nice warm climate, a nice dock to stand on.
Birds are fun to paint. I don't know why I like them so much. I guess its because each one has its own personality. Every bird I paint gets its own story. This one is definitely looking at something on the dock. Maybe a tasty bit of food has blown onto the wood, he has just seen it, and it about to go over and have a snack.
Whatever his real story, he was a blast to paint. I hope you enjoy it. If you want to see how I did it, I have, as has become my custom, made a video of it. You can see it below. Thanks for the read, and the view if you have the inclination.
I must be on some kind of bird painting kick. Here, I've painted an Oriole. He is sitting on what appears to be a broken branch.
This bird was really fun to paint. The vibrant orange color is made from a couple of different reds, and a couple of different yellows. I did use a pre-mixed grey (payne's grey) but I augmented it myself. I don't usually use the grey right out of the tube. It's mot a bad color, just a little bit flat.
I've given the bird just a few indications of feathers. Just enough to enhance the shape of the bird.
He sits on a stick that has obviously seen better days. Its got some pitting and dents in it.
The background was originally going to be a bit more mottled, but I think I forgot to mix another color into it. As it is, the colors are phthalo blue and ultramarine blue. The green parts are windsor green and viridian. The blue behind the orange really makes this bird pop off the page.
Well, I hope you enjoyed the painting and the quick read. If you want to see how I painted it, check out the following video.
I haven't forgotten about all you avid Dabfly Arts readers. I have been busy. In the past week, I've worked overtime, held a garage sale, been across town about 14, flown to the moon and visited the rings of Saturn. Let's just say I've been a bit busy. Well, no matter, I'm back and putting up the pictures I should have been putting up all along.
The first painting is of course some apples still on a tree. They must be getting ready to pick they are slowly turning red. The second a Scrub Jay which we have in the western states. They are actually really nice birds, not like those nasty Blue Jays. Finally a simple painting of a Kingfisher. Each of these now comes with a video showing how I made it. (Picture on left, video on right) Take a look to see how I do it. Thanks for the view.
Just putting in a little practice last night. These two were painted on cheap paper.
I sketched them both to look alike, then set aobut painting them in slightly different ways. The end result is drastically different birds in the end. I'm not sure if I like either of them, but I don't really dislike either. Tonight, probably more birds.
A robin in winter. I will admit that this guy doesn't display all the personality of some of my other birds, but he is cute anyway. I was painting from a picture that had been taken in winter. I can tell from the snow on the little stick the bird is on, but I couldn't make out what was in the background. So I tried to fill it with cool colors. I wanted to leave them a little light so as to not take away from the bird, but just give an indication of temperature. Now that you know its cold in the picture, I bet you can really see it.
I made a video to go along with this so you can see how I did it. Interested parties can follow this link.
I hope you enjoy this little bird and I hope you enjoy the video. You keep looking and watching, and Ill keep painting and posting.
Chicken-a-go-go. I don't know why I like painting chickens, but I do. They are so fun, and easy. All you have to do is let the paint do its thing. I could have painted these all night. Just draw one after the other, and paint paint paint.
If you haven't seen it, I've put a short video that will show you how I've done it.
Today, I give you the humble Sea Gull. A shore bird you see nearly everywhere. This picture came to me by way of my watercolor group on G+ and +Kelly Murphy.
I've thought about painting gulls before, god knows I have enough around my house for inspiration, but it took a little nudge to get me to do it. People usually tell me my birds have a lot of personality in them. I hope this guy does too, but I fear he is just a little too aloof for that. I mean he is floating way up there in the sky, how can I be expected to get his attitude, right? Well, I enjoyed painting anyway.
After the drawing, I went right into the sky background. A mixture of cerulean and turquoise blues. Then the bird is gamboge (yellow), Van Dyke brown ( I don't think it's named after Dick), terra cotta, rose lake (err, some kind of red anyway) and maybe a bit of raw sienna. After blocking in some basic color on the bird allI needed to do was add the feathers. actually 3 rows of feathers on the right wing. These were actually terrifying to do since I knew I had one chance. Given that, I think I pulled it off pretty well.
Well, I hope you like it, I loved painting it. Thank you.
I think I got just a little sloppy with my paint and the red bled into the blue in a couple of places. This guy seems to be a little fluffed up. It must be cold wherever he is.
Just a quick little painting to get ready for the holidays. Enjoy.
Last week I was a little frustrated with my painting and a friend of mine suggested I look at things a bit differently and use different colors or different paints to paint my pictures. Well, I've got some old paints that were made in West Germany. I don't know what West Germans knew about paint or anything. I do know that the colors in this set are kind of different and mostly opaque. When I say they are kind of different, what I mean is that 7 different blues, none of which match with my existing french ultramarine, pthalo blue, cerulean blue deep or cerulean blue. It's the same thing with the 6 greens, 7 reds and 5 yellows.
I had used this set for about a week when I first started painting but couldn't get used to the colors. They are just weird. But for this painting I mixed and mixed and came out with colors that I think are pretty good. In fact, I made a deal with myself. If Im gonna paint with a wide swath of colors, I can't mix a big pool of one color and keep dipping it in. I have to make a small pool of it, and add too it or change it each time I dip into it. You can see in the body of the bird there are reds oranges and yellows all throughout. And the blue of the bird is at least 4 different shades throughout.
The log the bird is sitting on started as a really pale grey, like it was really bleached out. then it got a bit darker grey, blue, yellow, green and finally it is what it is. I don't think I'm done with this one, you might see hime make a return on this sit in a finalized form, but for now, I'm back and having fun with some new paints. Trying to mix any kind of a normal color with these crazy paints is fun in itself. Thanks for the nudge Kelly Murphy.
This is obviously a very proud bird. He's sitting on a branch with his chest puffed out. There must be a female on a brach close by. He seems to be looking off to the side, so perhaps she'e just off the page to the left.
For those that have followed my paintings for a while now, you can see that I am a lot less "tight" with my paint. I'm trying hard to let things be, and just allow the paint to fill in the spaces it needs to fill. I've seen that if I fidget with things and try to get them "right" the only thing I can be certain of is that things won't look "right". If I let the paint do it paint thing, things look a bit better and less fiddled with.
Well, its a quick painting that I had fun with, hope you all like it.
Ok, here is a quick sketch of a little red bird. Not exactly what kind of bird it is.
Working on painting loose, but may have gotten a little too loose around his head and on the branch in the foreground.
All in all it's not a bad little painting.
I've looked at this painting several times over the past day or so, and I keep trying to figure out what this guys story it. I haven't quite gotten it, but whatever he is doing, it looks like he needs to wear gloves for it. Maybe they are driving gloves? Not really sure. Well, anyway, enjoy.
Some quick weekend sketching fun. Ill be honest ins saying most of what I did was pick through garage sales, and watch the kids, but I did find a little time to paint. Not much mind you, but a little. This first picture is of a stone statue that sits on my front porch. I'm trying to paint more quickly and more intuitively, rather than trying to exactly replicate what I see. So here it the cat in all its glory, just sitting there staring at traffic as it goes past.
This picture is one I'd previously drawn. It was just sitting there in my sketch pad begging for me to do something with ti. So here it is.
Finally, the thing everyone wants. A picture of an old cat tree. LOL. Well, I know one member of the family that couldn't get by without it. (mostly because the dog can't climb.)
A light hearted posting today. Enjoy, and thank you.
Here is the latest. It is, as you can see, an oriole. Not sure what I liked so much about this picture when I stated painting it, but I think it turned out nice. A lot of times, it seems when you paint birds, you end up doing them in profile. Maybe I liked this one because it wasn't in profile.
He's just sitting there checking out his surroundings.
I've been invaded by seagulls!!! Living near the ocean, it's hard not to see seagulls every day. Usually I try to pay them as little mind as possible. For some strange reason, I got a hankering for painting them. Here is what I came up with. One I did on my lunch hour, and one I did in the studio.
I haven't forgotten about all you avid Dabfly Arts readers. I have been busy. In the past week, I've worked overtime, held a garage sale, been across town about 14, flown to the moon and visited the rings of Saturn. Let's just say I've been a bit busy. Well, no matter, I'm back and putting up the pictures I should have been putting up all along. 
