Prothonotary Warblers

In honor of the Oxbow show that Southeastern Indiana Art Guild is participating in next week, we are painting two warblers that live and nest in our little wetlands in Indiana/Cincinnati area. Using a photo found on pixabay (website for free usage of photos), we started with a sketch. I got some good tips from The Mind of Watercolor on drawing these birds. #1: Use watercolor pencil the color of the bird or #2: after drawing, lighten the pencil lines with gum eraser. Since these are yellow birds, I and pencil lines would definitely show through, I thought these were good tips.

YES, I FINALLY USED PAYNES GRAY!

To show a little bit about GLAZING and UNDERPAINTING, I used paynes gray, very lightly, to shade the underbelly. It is hard to make yellows go to a dark enough value to show roundness, so you often have to "push" the color a bit. The bird on the left is underpainted with a bit of paynes gray on the underside. The bird on the right is underpainted with yellow ochre mixed with paynes gray. You can also use a light violet mix made from cobalt blue and magenta. DRY COMPLETELY, as this is a glaze technique.

If you want, you can underpaint the top wing feathers with an olive green. In class we did the yellow first, then added green.

Using two yellows (I used Hansa light and New Gamboge), paint the heads and bellies of the birds. Start with the light, then add New Gamboge in the more shaded areas as you go. Let it dry. Then add as many layers of yellows as you need to get the effect you want. Paint the yellow over the green top feathers. (Prothonotary Warblers males are warmer yellow while females are more lemon yellow). If you want to add some quin gold in some shaded areas, that looks good too. 

I was pleased with how the underpainting contributed to the round feeling of the birds.

THE WINGS

Bird wings are generally in three sections: short, fat wings over the "shoulder" area; longer feathers just beneath that; and the longest flight feathers last of all. If a bird has a short tail and long flight feathers, you will often see the flight feathers look crossed in the back. 

Starting with the tail area, put a glaze of cobalt blue over the wing feathers, gradually blending them out in the shoulder area so there is no definite line. On the right bird I did short strokes of cobalt, painting in the direction of the feathers, so I could leave tiny bits of white.  When it is dry, use a darker mix of blue to make the lines between the feathers. The shoulder feathers just have soft short lines that are softened away. The other feathers have hard small lines. Try to leave bits of white if you did not mask out any whites.

You will want to emphasize the space between the wing and the body. I used burnt orange to paint along the edge of the wing and body, then added French ultramarine and blended out toward the body, leaving a hard edge against the wing, but softening it toward the belly. (you can just mix some yellow and red for the orange.) I wish now that I'd let the orange dry first, then put in the blue, because it bled more than I wanted, and I'll have to clean up the backrun it made.

Mix a dark blue with burnt umber (or indigo) and carefully paint in the eyes, being sure to leave a white hilight. Paint the beaks with this dark color. For the beak on the right hand bird, just paint the bottom beak and the nostril on the top. Dry, then glaze with a bit of cobalt so there is some difference between the two. 

NEXT WEEK: FINISH THE BIRD AND BACKGROUND