Mocking Bird

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.

Oriole

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.

Thank you.

Quack Attack

So I was messing around and thought I would paint a duck.  Tried to do it pretty quickly and somewhat loose.

I thought it came out pretty good.  The colors muddle together just a little, but its still pretty clear what the edge of the duck it.  The wing is a bit so so.  I tried to put a  dark line to represent the ducks back wing, but I don't think it quite worked out.

Oh well, its still kinda a cool painting.  Hope you like it.

Chickens

Was doing a little doodling, and decided to doodle some chickens.  These were super fun to paint.  I had the intent of letting the paint mix on the paper.  I still wanted to try to maintain that each had a crown, wing tail, legs, etc. while not being so tight with the paint.  I think for the most part i worked pretty well.  You can see that the tails are a dark, and their underbelly is dark, and their necks a bit lighter.  If you look you can see the color blend from one to another.

Well, I had fun with this practice.  I'll probably put the ground and a background on at some time, so these might just pop up again.

Thanks for the look and enjoy.

Owl at night

Ok, so they cant all be winners.  This one got away form me pretty early on, and I couldn't quite tell how to write the ship.  I just kept painting and painting.

After only about 5 minutes of painting I decided I didn't like this.  But having as thick a head as I have, I just kinda kept plugging away at it.  I will admit that the longer I painted, the better I felt about this.  I think one of my big problems is that when you paint owls, you have to put on two eyes.  You never see owl pictures with one eye.  The yes are what make the owl.  So... since the eyes are such a focal point of the owl, you have to have them look correct.  Right from the beginning (I mean even the drawing) I think my eyes were not quite right. Now they are different sizes, and that sets the painting off.  Grrrrrr... Oh well, that's why these are practice and I have an actual day job.

On the bright side, I painted lots of layers on this.  I would bet that there are places that have as many as 8 or 9 layers of paint.  And on the wing closest to you, you can really see that.

I've been trying to paint in more, lighter layers.  Trying to give my paintings a bit of depth.  The down side, is that in the back ground, on the inital layer, I had branches behind the owl.  Adding subsequent  layers has rendered them invisible.  Oh, well, take the good with the bad.

I still had fun painting this one.  I've got  friend who was looking for an owl painting, and this one just might end up in her office.  Thanks for viewing.

Eagle Eye

Alright, I started to draw this bird just a bit too large, and it didn't quite fit on the paper.  I don't think it really affects the picture.  I think it turned out really well.  The bird is sitting in the middle of some branches and obviously looking at something tasty.  I drew the outline of the bird, and the eye, and that was it.  Freehanded the rest. I really was having problems with the feathers on the wings and back.  but after layering the colors on, I think it came out nicely.  Hope you all enjoy the picture.