A Few Portraits

I'm working on the first lesson on how to draw birds. But in the meantime, here are some bird paintings that have coincided with some experiments in watercolor, using a couple of different brushes. Mechanical pencil on cold-pres (bumpy) paper, then about three layers of paint, light to dark obviously. Mostly burnt sienna, yellow ochre, prussian blue, as well as gray/diluted ink. Some judicious use of masking fluid. I touched them up in photoshop.

I'll take this opportunity to praise the work of a bird photographer named Mike Yip. He has a website called VancouverIslandBirds (and I believe a book by the same name) which has an enormous number of superb bird photographs and stories of birding in his area. He clearly is a great lover and student of wildlife, and a great amateur photographer too. I want his camera.

The first two paintings in the following series (the willet and the bloody goshawk) are directly based on his photos.

Falco Subbuteo

This is my Hobby [<-brilliant pun].