I'm planning for my upcoming Watercolor Wildlife and Birds class at University Heights Center this spring and aim to present a way of painting that gives a sense of the fluidity of the watercolor medium. Painting loosely also serves as a great warm up and conveys the proportions and contours of a bird or mammal quickly. On this sketch of a scold of jays (such an apt collective noun!) I worked on Fabriano Artistico cold press paper and laid a loose background wash first. After it dried I painted the birds directly (no pencil drawing first) with a DaVinci Maestro #6 brush--it holds alot of paint, but with its beautiful tapered point it's easy to get sharp details like bills and claws. The birds were painted with the medium value general color first, then water was dropped in to create lighter areas, and then the darkest darks were lightly added with the brush tip.
molly, I love this! Those jays really stood still for you, didn't they?
Posted by: Jocelyn Curry | March 26, 2012 at 10:18 PM
This is so cool, Molly!!
I'm really looking forward to class!
Posted by: Marilyn McGuire | March 30, 2012 at 08:53 AM
The birds appear to have fine dark edges. The brush you describe really creates an amazing effect. Love the looseness of this technique.
Posted by: Kim | March 31, 2012 at 09:39 AM