How to Paint Bird's Wings

If you’ve seen any of my work recently, you’ll know that I especially love painting animals. I also love colour. These two interests combine perfectly when it comes to painting birds! In this video tutorial I am showing you the steps you can take to paint bird’s wings successfully!

It’s actually easier than it looks and with some practice, you’ll be painting stunning wings in no time! First, let’s talk about some of the terminology I’m using in the video narration.

Wet on Dry

Painting wet on dry is simply painting with a wet, loaded brush on dry paper.

Watercolour Layers

If you want to paint any level of detail, from simple to the most complex, you have to approach your subject in layers. Layers of watercolour are separated by drying times. For example, let’s say you want to paint a circle with a distinct shadow. Your first layer would be to paint your circle and then let it dry completely. Your second layer would be the shadow (or anything you paint on top, after it had completely dried).

Wet on Wet

In this type of paint application, your brush is wet and so is your paper, creating soft blooms or “fuzzy” colours.

Negative Space Painting

Negative space is the space around your subject. So in this instance, instead of painting the actual feather we are painting the shadows around it.

Now on to the tutorial! I’m showing you how I paint what appears to be complex wings in just a few layers with some basic techniques! The complete tutorial is available along with a step by step PDF on Patreon in case you are curious.

Materials List:

• Fabriano Studio Cold Press Paper

• DaVinci Casaneo brush size 2

• Princeton & Co. size 6 round

• Paint Brands:

  • Winsor & Newton

  • Daniel Smith

  • La Sirena Watercolours

• Main Colours for the wing of this bird:

  • Neutral tint

  • Phthalo Blue

  • Phthalo Turquoise

  • Violet

  • Lemon Yellow (just a hint)

  • Ultramarine Blue

Happy painting and if this tutorial inspires you to paint, share it with me in an email or tag me on Instagram @einsbeatriz

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