Bird watercolour
painting of a bluetit.
Modern wildlife watercolours, such as this UK bird watercolour painting, can be based on original life sketches of birds from the field or garden.
Such sketches, captured with an ordinary graphite pencil and
sketchbook, are a great source of art reference
material for contemporary watercolours, as with this bluetit
painting. It is a fun way to capture the spirit of a bird in motion
and a pleasant way to continue with art in-between the more detailed,
traditional fine art paintings of British wildlife and birds.
Washes of colour are
applied wet-in-wet and allowed to flow and merge with other colours
to create movement. Dry-in-dry watercolour paint is applied to define
specific areas.
A watercolour wash
can quickly cover larger areas of a painting, onto which detail can
then be applied before finishing off with further washes of colour.
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Popular British bird, watercolour painting |
Birds are constantly moving, whether flying or gliding above the trees or twisting, ducking and diving through the hedgerow.
This style of painting requires less detail than fine art bird paintings and allows for greater interpretation of the subject, such as the vibrant colours of the underwings on this bluetit, which looked fairly grey in colour as the bluetit darted around the garden!