A quick overview of key stages in the painting of Sax, the Augur Buzzard (who started out as “Hero” a Shrika!
I have never seen a Little Sparrowhawk, but I knew of them and wanted to paint them, especially when I found what I thought was a photo of a Little Sparrowhawk on and old Facebook page – the Naivasha Owl Centre, run by my Friends, Shiv Kapila and Simon Thompsett . My buddies now operate the Kenya Bird of Prey Trust, and actually saved the day halfway through the painting by showing me images of a recent rescue, which was the right species
I trawled the Web for images of a Little Sparrowhawk in flight, and found this inspirational photo by Luciano Piazzaon his instagram.
Stupidly, I ignored that this Sparrowhawk clearly had deep golden, and not red eyes!
I composited the images of Hero and Luciano's Sparrowhawk, in Photoshop, and added in and edited a branch. In hindsight, I think the positioning of Hero's head was a little awkward, and changing the feet so they were grasping the branch instead of being about to alight, as in the original photo, was not successful either.
Before beginning the painting, I first lay out a few swatch tests, on a pad of Arches 140 lb cold press, settling on a wet-on-wet blend of Chromium Yellow Deep and Yellow Ochre.
I lay in clear water up to the outline of the subject leaving a dry silhouette, then quickly wash in a light layer of chromium yellow deep, blending more yellow ochre at the top.
Then I add and work in a little some clear water to create teh deliberate blooms that identify my background panel style.
Using reference of a shrika, instead of a Little Sparrowhawk, I blithely pained a beautiful red eye. Little Sparrowhawks have golden yellow eyes! This would come back to bite me!
Using a combination of wet-on-wet and wet-on-dry, i start laying in the barred patterns of the leading primary feathers and start to loosely define the russet flank, with its beautiful barring patterns.
I paint the topmost feathers first, and wait for each feather to be dry before painting the one underneath.
Secondary feathers are typically held closer together than the primaries and are less pointed. They are responsible for most of the lift a bird gains from flapping, hence their curved profile, while primaries add some lift but are mostly critical for guidance. Raptors have amazing muscle control of their primaries, allowing them to tilt and readjust as they dive or hover.
I complete the primaries and add in the secondaries at the lower outside of the wing, and add to the flank and throat areas.
Coverts are softer feathers, adding dimension for lift and strength to support the primaries and secondaries. They occur in multiple layers. I lay in the base for the inner coverts, paying attention to not only the patterning, but also laying in softly bled shadows to create dimension.
A diagram of the wing parts of a bird, from
Avian Report
Coverts are softer feathers, adding dimension for lift and strength to support the primaries & secondaries. They occur in multiple layers. I lay in the base for the inner coverts, paying attention to not only the patterning, but also laying in softly bled shadows to create dimension.
I loosely define the base layer of the rear wing, wet-on-wet, mixing Payne's Grey, Burnt Umber and Prussian Blue, with a hint of Van Dyke Brown, to achieve the smoky charcoal colors.
I glaze and over-paint details and shadows to build up the dimension of the rear wing, softening each glaze area with water to avoid high contrasts.
After discovering that the reference photo I had used for the head area was actually from a Shrika, i reached out to Simon Thompsett, of the Kenya Bird of Prey Trust who provided me with photos of an actual Little Sparrowhawk, named Sax. I then, in an agony of guilt and feeling every bit like a forger, over-painted the eye in gouache. Simon also informed me that Little Sparrowhawks are differentiated by having longer middle toes, so I had to use gouache and even a layer of white acrylic to fix that portion.
I preferred the "pure" watercolor red eye, but accuracy prevails in ornothological paintings.
A photo of an actual Little Sparrowhawk, "Sax" rescued by the Kenya Bird of Prey Trust
After correcting the eye, and glazing for a bit more shadowing and depth of tone, all that is left is fixing the toes, then painting the moss covered log.
I painted the mossy log, wet-on-wet with a lot of glazing for detail, in Van Dyke Brown and Burnt Umber, darkened in places with Payne's Grey and Prussian Blue.
Ultimately I was not entirely satisfied with this piece, with its slightly awkward pose and gouache and acrylic over-painting "fixes".
I have never seen a Little Sparrowhawk, but I knew of them and wanted to paint them, especially when I found what I thought was a photo of a Little Sparrowhawk on and old Facebook page – the Naivasha Owl Centre, run by my Friends, Shiv Kapila and Simon Thompsett . My buddies now operate the Kenya Bird of Prey Trust, and actually saved the day halfway through the painting by showing me images of a recent rescue, which was the right species
I trawled the Web for images of a Little Sparrowhawk in flight, and found this inspirational photo by Luciano Piazza on his instagram.
Stupidly, I ignored that this Sparrowhawk clearly had deep golden, and not red eyes!
I composited the images of Hero and Luciano's Sparrowhawk, in Photoshop, and added in and edited a branch. In hindsight, I think the positioning of Hero's head was a little awkward, and changing the feet so they were grasping the branch instead of being about to alight, as in the original photo, was not successful either.
Before beginning the painting, I first lay out a few swatch tests, on a pad of Arches 140 lb cold press, settling on a wet-on-wet blend of Chromium Yellow Deep and Yellow Ochre.
I lay in clear water up to the outline of the subject leaving a dry silhouette, then quickly wash in a light layer of chromium yellow deep, blending more yellow ochre at the top.
Then I add and work in a little some clear water to create teh deliberate blooms that identify my background panel style.
I had used an image from Kenya Bird of Trust's old facebook page – the Naivasha Owl Centre: https://www.facebook.com/naivashaowls/, of a rescue called 'Hero", which, as it turned out was not a Little Sparrowhawk, but a Shrika. Shrikas are close cousins, but, critically, their eyes are red/orange eyes instead of the deep gold/yellow of the Little Sparrowhawk.
Ultimately this mistake came back to bite me, requiring gouache over-painting, which as a watercolorist, is a technique I typically despise! It was a shame, as the eye came out pretty well. I laid in a wet-on-wet wash of the head and throat areas before painting the eye, leaving reflections as mostly paper color, soften with subtle over-glaze. Colors are Pyrol red and alazarin Crimson. Pupil is Payne's Grey, Prussian Blue and Burnt Umber – not black!
"Hero" the rescue Shrika, who sadly, died shortly after being rescued.
Using a combination of wet-on-wet and wet-on-dry, i start laying in the barred patterns of the leading primary feathers and start to loosely define the russet flank, with its beautiful barring patterns.
I paint the topmost feathers first, and wait for each feather to be dry before painting the one underneath. This way, if I want to paint shadows directly into the wet-on-wet underlying feather while it is still damp, preventing the shadow from bleeding to the feathers above. In this instance I patterned the feathers first and over-glazed shadows in a later step. Not yet settled on a preferred technique!
Secondary feathers are typically held closer together than the primaries and are less pointed. They are responsible for most of the lift a bird gains from flapping, hence their curved profile, while primaries add some lift but are mostly critical for guidance. Raptors have amazing muscle control of their primaries, allowing them to tilt and readjust as they dive or hover.
I complete the primaries and add in the secondaries at the lower outside of the wing, and add to the flank and throat areas.
Coverts are softer feathers, adding dimension for lift and strength to support the primaries and secondaries. They occur in multiple layers. I lay in the base for the inner coverts, paying attention to not only the patterning, but also laying in softly bled shadows to create dimension.
A diagram of the wing parts of a bird, from Avian Report:
I loosely define the base layer of the rear wing, wet-on-wet, mixing Payne's Grey, Burnt Umber and Prussian Blue, with a hint of Van Dyke Brown, to achieve the smoky charcoal colors.
I glaze and over-paint details and shadows to build up the dimension of the rear wing, softening each glaze area with water to avoid high contrasts.
After discovering that the reference photo I had used for the head area was actually from a Shrika, i reached out to Simon Thompsett, of the Kenya Bird of Prey Trust who provided me with photos of an actual Little Sparrowhawk, named Sax, which had been recently rescued. I then, in an agony of guilt and feeling every bit like a forger, over-painted the eye in gouache. Little Sparrowhawks are also differentiated by having longer middle toes, so I had to use gouache and even a layer of white acrylic to fix that portion.
I preferred the "pure" watercolor red eye, but accuracy prevails in ornothological paintings.
A photo of an actual Little Sparrowhawk, "Sax" rescued by the Kenya Bird of Prey Trust
After correcting the eye, and glazing for a bit more shadowing and depth of tone, all that is left is the moss covered log.
I painted the mossy log, wet-on-wet with a lot of glazing for detail, in Van Dyke Brown and Burnt Umber, darkened in places with Payne's Grey and Prussian Blue.
Ultimately I was not entirely satisfied with this piece, with its slightly awkward pose and gouache and acrylic over-painting "fixes".
