Finishing the Cardinals

 I wasn't happy with the flatness on the upper chest of the female. My paint had dried before salt could react on it. So I put another layer of paint on it and used some popcorn salt, and it reacted just fine the second time.

To separate the feathers, use a gray, and with a small brush, outline the feathers, then use water to soften them on the bottom edge. (I made this gray from ultramarine and burnt sienna). 

The eyes: the eyes have a lighter rim around them. If you look very closely, you have the outer rim, a medium brown, then dark black, then white highlight. But since it's so small, I skipped the medium brown, did a black center, then, when dry, added a tiny highlight with gouache or white ink. 

(Hint: you can add these tiny details with black watercolor pencil dipped in water. Sometimes my hands shake too much for tiny details with a brush, and I resort to watercolor pencil for control)

For the red cardinal, add at least another layer of reds, but don't try to go too dark too fast. You are building up layers, so be patient. Use your transparent pyrrol orange to warm up areas that are too cool; use alizarin to cool off areas that might be too warm. Aim for some roundness in the belly area.

On both birds, think of them as being two round balls, a small for the head and a large for the breast area. Think about shading them as you would a ball, only a soft fuzzy one. They will read much better, instead of looking flat. 

Separate the wings in the same manner as the female, only use darker gray or even blue or purple to separate the wing feathers. Pay attention to the roundness and softness of the shoulder, the short feathers next, then the longer flight feathers. Separate the tail feathers. 

Lift any areas that need to be lighter or come forward. 

For the black mask, I wet the area and wet just beyond where I want the black to go. You can make a black or use a tube black or paynes gray. Apply the paint around the beak first, making a nice hard line against the beak. Then gently spread the black to the outer part of the mask, and let the water move the paint into the wet areas. It should create a softer edge where the black and red feathers meet. 

(see the above picture)

For the berries, treat groups as one shape. Underpaint them with coral or transparent pyrrol orange. When they dry, separate shapes with alizarin crimson. For deeper shadows, add some purple to your alizarin. The contrast of the dark and light red shapes will make the berries look more transparent. 

For the leaves, underpaint all with a layer of yellow or green gold. When that dries, use a blue to paint areas that will show bends in the leaves. (shadowed) When that dries, use a darker green to paint over the entire leaf, leaving the very thin middle line of the leaf. (It will show yellow at this point) When dry, use clean water to blush over the leaf, including the line. This will make the middle of the leaf blend in better. If you want to lift some highlights, wait until it is completely dry, and lift a few highlights.

The stem is a color called rose of ultramarine, but you can make it by adding magenta to your purple. Wet the stem, then add the color at the bottom, letting the color rise to the top of the stem. When it dries, make sure the bottom is darker than the top to make it appear round. Also, make the leaves look attached to the stem. You can just wet the bottom of the leaf and drag some of the color into the stem where it attaches. 

If you want to make the female bird's breast feel fuzzier, you can try using small strokes of white pastel pencil or white General's pencil. You can also try stroking some white pastel over areas to emphasize the soft feel. But these things should be done AFTER all the other painting is done.

For blogs about negative painting the leaves, a lesson from a few weeks ago, see below:

beginning the leaf painting

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8812132386157895665/8889127726741567536

Finishing leaves, June 2016

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8812132386157895665/346643219997373102

some youtubes explaining negative painting

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8812132386157895665/3255772476721552502

Cardinal Christmas Card

 Background or no background?

This is the first try for painting cardinals. I was asked why I didn't give it a background. Do all paintings need one? I think it's personal preference and what you want to do with the painting. I want this one to be a simple Christmas card, so didn't put in a background. But....

I originally considered putting in some loose background color. To see if it was something I would like, I did the painting on yupo, adding some light green and red in the background. I also wanted to see if I wanted to move add some berries and change a few things. Yupo was a good, fast way to experiment without ruining a picture at the beginning.

Yupo version:

I decided I liked the drippy background, so put it onto the cold press paper. I just sprayed a little, 

dripped some color on, and moved the paper up and down to move the drips in the direction I wanted. I then began with the female. I did use a tiny bit of masking fluid on the tail and dot on the eye. On the original, I didn't use any miskit.

Colors I used: raw sienna (or quin gold), burnt sienna, ultramarine blue, and transparent pyrrol orange. (can use yellow and coral instead.)

I wet the face, crest, and breast of the bird. Wet in wet, I put raw sienna over the head and top of the breast, adding some burnt sienna in the darker part of the head. Sprinkled salt...popcorn salt preferably...onto the top of the breast. Made a gray from the blue and orange, and used that on the lower part  and sides of the breast/belly, very lightly, to create some roundness.

I used transparent pyrrol orange to the tail and wing feathers. (These will get grayer later in the process)

 The beaks are made from yellow and quin coral or transparent pyrrol orange. When they dried, coral was used to separate the top and bottom beaks, and a highlight was lifted from the upper beak. 

This painting is about building up layers. Don't try to get the colors perfect the first layer. It looks better if you can build them up.

Here I added some burnt sienna and orange to the crest and head. When it was dry, I painted the black mask, and then added a little more burnt sienna around the edges to keep the edges soft.

The eyes need to have a small circle around the darkest black of the eye. It isn't white white, but it needs to be lighter than the black of the eye. 

I wanted to get in a base for the red cardinal. He especially needs to be built up in layers, and I want to have time next week to do him right. Colors are cobalt blue (but you can use ultramarine), pyrrol red (or any red or orange red), and alizarin crimson. I wet the body, and used blue on shadow areas: underneath the breast, under the wing, part of the tail, the crest, some on the upper wing. Then I used the warm red on the breast and face and crest, and alizarin on the tail, letting the colors run together. 

Do not try to avoid the black areas. You can easily paint over any color with black. 

On the female bird, I used a little gray (made from blue and orange) on the tail feathers and upper wing. 

Here are the reference photos I used:

photo by Megan Zopf

PMP

Evereau Ozdemir PMP

Goran Hocoel-- PMP

I also want to point out that your birds will look more realistic if you pay just a bit of attention to the wing feathers.  The wings on the cardinals are very much like the bird on the bottom right. The upper shoulder (scapular)  feathers are small and soft, and not individually distinct.  Then there is a layer of small but detailed feathers. Then come the secondary, longer feathers. And last are the long primary flight feathers. The actual back of the bird has tiny feathers that are covered up by the folded wing feathers. 

Hopefully you can see some of these distinctions in the painting below. 

Next week: finishing the details on the birds and the holly.