I had seen and even photographed, hundreds of grey crowned cranes, in my years living in Kenya, but was not happy with any of my own photos, so I trawled the web and came up with this stunningly lit shot of a crane flexing his magnificent wings. The photo is by Shawn Olsesen.
I sought his permission, admittedly after the fact, and based my painting on his stunning photo, using some of my own close up head photos for detail reference.
I composited the images Olesen's photo with my own head images in Photoshop, stripped out the background and played around with a base color layout for the "Golden Ratio" background panel. To learn more about the Golden Ratio, which I incorporate into much of my work, go to: Wikipedia: Golden Ratio.
I mask out delicate areas, which will be lighter than the background, like the fine crest feathers, then apply clear water to the background area, leaving a blank silhouette of my subject space. Once covered I very quickly lay in a wet-on-wet wash, blending pthalo blue, a tiny amount of prussian blue and primarily, cobalt. Here you can see th ebloom effect in one area.
The background was is mostly done, clearly showing subject silhouette and bloom textures. You can see the frisket masking over the crest.
Then I add and work in a little some clear water to create teh deliberate blooms that identify my background panel style.
Using a cow gum eraser and clean fingers, I peel off the masking over the crest. When choosing paper, if you know you are going to be using liquid frisket, get a paper with good surface sizing. I'm using Arches 300 lb rough, which can take a lot of punishment.
I paint wet on dry and use some glazing to lay in the areas of the beak and the pebbled skin in front of the eye.
I paint the cheek and wattle areas wet-on-dry, then scatter some table salt to add texture.
I do a losse wash, adding clear water to create deliberate subtle blooms while paint is satin wet.
I paint wet-on-wet then wet on dry glazes to softly define the gorgeous long neck and chest feathers. I lay clear water up to the edges of glazed shadows to soften them.
I continue glazing to build up shadows and contrast in the chest feathers, then lay out the basic blocks, using wet-on-dry and dry brush for texture.
I use wet-on-wet and a bit of dry brush to loosely define the tan colored lower primary feathers. I leave random paper texture showing to add drama.
See parts of a bird wing below, from: https://avianreport.com/bird-flight-tail-feathers/
I use glazing with over-painted wet-on-wet bleeds to deepen shadows over and under the feathers below the wing.
A photo of an actual Little Sparrowhawk, "Sax" rescued by the Kenya Bird of Prey Trust
I use glazing and post-glaze bleeds to define the edges and shadows of each feather. Shadows are laid in using wet-on-dry glazing, then edges softened while glaze is still wet by applying clear water up to the shadow edge and letting the tome bleed outwards.
I use very loose wet-on-wet and deliberate blooms to block in the charcoal-colored, upper primary feathers. I will keep these feathers very loose, without much glazing for definition, so the texture, rather than the detail, dominates. The quills are lifted by dragging a stiff wet #3 synthetic pointed round brush along the quill line, then dabbing with tissue to remove paint.
I block in the rear wing, using wet-on-wet, blooms and glazing to loosely define feather masses. Then I start defining the contours of the outer coverts of the front wing, working from top outer edge, inwards and downwards.
White feathers are especially difficult, in watercolor, as every layer of glazed or wet-on-wet paint darkens the underlying pigments. In order to achieve any sense of luminance, it is more about what you don't paint, than what you do.
I glaze, to build up the illuminated inner feathers. White feathers are some of the harder things to get right with watercolor, as each glazed layer darkens the paper. With white feathers it's more a case of what you don't paint, than what you do!
I re-glazed over the background to reduce contrast of the blooms, and added soft washes of chromium yellow deep and yellow ochre to add tone to inner wing feathers, then painted the bottom swash of burnt sienna to suggest a ground-line, signing in liquid firisket before doing the wash, then peeling off to reveal a reverse signature.
I was not happy with any of my own crane photos, so I trawled the web and came up with this stunningly lit shot of a crane flexing his magnificent wings, by Shawn Olsesen.
I sought his permission, admittedly after the fact, and based my painting on his exquisite photo, using some of my own close up head photos for detail reference.
I composited the images Olesen's photo and my own head, stripped out the background and played around with a base color layout for the "Golden Ration" background panel. To learn more about the Golden Ratio, which I incorporate into much of my work, go to: Wikipedia" Golden Ratio
.
I mask out delicate areas, which will be lighter than the background, like the fine crest feathers, then apply clear water to the background area, leaving a blank silhouette of my subject space. Once covered I very quickly lay in a wet-on-wet wash, blending pthalo blue, a tiny amount of prussian blue and primarily, cobalt. Here you can see th ebloom effect in one area.
The background was is mostly done, clearly showing subject silhouette and bloom textures. You can see the frisket masking over the crest.
Then I add and work in a little clear water to create the deliberate blooms that identify my background panel style.
Using a cow gum eraser and clean fingers, I peel off the masking over the crest. When choosing paper, if you know you are going to be using liquid frisket, get a paper with good surface sizing.
I'm using Arches 300 lb rough, which can take a lot of punishment.
I paint wet on dry and use some glazing to lay in the areas of the beak and the pebbled skin in front of the eye.
I paint the cheek and wattle areas wet-on-dry, then scatter some table salt to add texture.
I do a losse wash, adding clear water to create deliberate subtle blooms while paint is satin wet.
I paint wet-on-wet then wet on dry glazes to softly define the gorgeous long neck and chest feathers. I lay clear water up to the edges of glazed shadows to soften them.
I continue glazing to build up shadows and contrast in the chest feathers, then lay out the basic blocks for the very large flank feathers, using wet-on-wet, wet-on-dry and dry brush for texture.
I use wet-on-wet and a bit of dry brush to loosely define the tan colored lower primary feathers. I leave random paper texture showing to add drama.
See parts of a bird wing here, from: https://avianreport.com/bird-flight-tail-feathers/
I use glazing with over-painted wet-on-wet bleeds to deepen shadows over and under the feathers below the wing.
I use glazing and post-glaze bleeds to define the edges and shadows of each feather. Shadows are laid in using wet-on-dry glazing, then edges softened while glaze is still wet by applying clear water up to the shadow edge and letting the tome bleed outwards.
I use very loose wet-on-wet and deliberate blooms to block in the charcoal-colored, upper primary feathers. I will keep these feathers very loose, without much glazing for definition, so the texture, rather than the detail, dominates. The quills are lifted by dragging a stiff wet #3 synthetic pointed round brush along the quill line, then dabbing with tissue to remove paint.
I block in the rear wing, using wet-on-wet, blooms and glazing to loosely define feather masses. Then I start defining the contours of the outer coverts of the front wing, working from top outer edge, inwards and downwards.
White feathers are especially difficult, in watercolor, as every layer of glazed or wet-on-wet paint darkens the underlying pigments. In order to achieve any sense of luminance, it is more about what you don't paint, than what you do.
I glaze, to build up the illuminated inner feathers. White feathers are some of the harder things to get right with watercolor, as each glazed layer darkens the paper. With white feathers it's more a case of what you don't paint, than what you do!
I re-glazed over the background to reduce contrast of the blooms, and added soft washes of chromium yellow deep and yellow ochre to add tone to inner wing feathers, then painted the bottom swash of burnt sienna to suggest a ground-line, signing in liquid firisket before doing the wash, then peeling off to reveal a reverse signature.
