In the previous post, I shared how I start an acrylic bird painting. In this lesson, I will show the next steps.
Next, I start refining my lights and darks, and mid-tones, correcting where needed. I use mainly the palette I mentioned in lesson 1: titanium white, burnt umber, burnt sienna, ultramarine blue, payne’s grey, with a bit of yellow ochre added to the white for highlights. I also put in the eye, refine the beak, and start adding color to the wings and shadowed areas.
The rest of the process is simply continuing adding lights, darks and mid-tones. I add lines to block in the feathers, and continue to darken as needed. Below is the finished painting.
Please let me know if you have any questions about the process; I hope this is helpful for those who love to watch – and paint -birds.