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'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.
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 started this picture at the same time I started the previous Gull painting. This one took just a bit longer.
I was really concerned about painting this because the picture I started with was really dark, and I don't typically like to paint that dark. I tried to keep it dark on the bottom, but lighten as you look up.
After drawing this picture, I started by painting the grey wings and then the driftwood. Lots of coats of paint on the wood. Then the rocks and water behind. Finally, beak and legs/feet.
I like the way it turned out. It reminds me of my home. Lots of overcast days keeping the bright colors down and greying everything, and plenty of sea gulls everywhere.
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.
