Friday, March 13, 2015

Pheasant in watercolor

I seem to do well with a challenge someone gives me, or a competition. I never seem to win but it gets me motivated. So here is a challenge that some fellow watercolorists in the Google+ community Group Watercolor Painting gave me: a photo of a pheasant. 
It took me a while to figure out where to start, but I decided to trace the outline of the bird right off the computer with pencil first, then traced it from there onto watercolor paper.  I decided not to worry about the background shown in the photo, so I threw down some background color around the outline. Not sure if my choices were too close to the color of the pheasant...

After that dried, I put in the main colors of the pheasant onto the body, while leaving the neck, beak, feet, tail feathers and some of the back white. I tried to blend the colors together so it transitions smoothly from one color to the next. Then I added in some black detail. It seemed like it needed some "grounding" so I added a shadow underneath. I went back in and reworked a few areas, like the wing which does not seem to be placed quite right.

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