Our Birds in Watercolor II weekend workshop with artist, David Rankin ended on Sunday, June 30.  On Friday evening we concentrated on learning kissed edge blends in detail, a skill we later used in painting our birds.  According to David, this is an “extremely simple procedure, but incredibly hard to do.”  “Practice,” he said, “as this is the money skill.”

David’s handout contains an excellent description of how to execute basic kissed edge blends. [click here to see kissed-edge technique]  We experimented with a thin bead, a strong bead, a really fat bead and no bead.  What is a bead, you ask?  It’s explained in David’s handout!  Using two inches of gravity, barely touch, ‘kiss’, the bottom edge of the gravity bead with the tip edge of the brush....do it one time, don’t go back and forth and no scrubbing!  When you are painting without a bead, and your second brush stroke is wetter than the first brush stroke, which is still damp, capillary action results.... sometimes called a happy accident or a blossom.  We used this “blossom” technique to create an interesting effect for the red feather topknot on our Military Macaw...some of us were much more successful than others.  This is a skill that needs practice.
 

On Saturday, we learned how to draw birds.  David said, “the ability as an artist to look at something and draw it is utter magic.”  “See shapes, draw shapes and do it on a regular basis.”  We started with the ruby throated hummingbird using David’s “stop, look, go” sketching technique.  The trick is to start with the beak and then draw the attached head shapes.  Tip:  never start the sketch with the tip of the beak, but where it emerges from the head.  Sketch shapes...the forehead, top, then under the beak.  Now add the body and the tree limb....“not the tootsies, yet.”  Next, place the eye; draw shapes around the eye; remember the reflection!  Draw some lines of feathers on the cone shape under the beak.  Draw the birds toes & feet...“it has three toes.”  Give the branch some character and then add the bird’s tail.  Next, add a light drawing to define shapes of feathers on the belly.  The classic drawing technique learned in art school needs to be unlearned.  Drawing numerous lines around a shape is a no-no!  Draw shapes with one single line and don’t take more than 10 - 15 minutes to complete your sketch.  Click here to see step-by-step photos of David sketching the hummingbird.

Next, we painted the bird in our sketchbook.  Shifting into a different skill set, we focused on kissed edge blends, starting with the head shape.  “Once you start a wet blend, keep it going,” David said.  So, get your palette ready and use gravity!  For the bird’s head, we used permanent rose, alizarin crimson, burnt sienna, a warm yellow/orange, burnt umber, and Payne’s gray.  Eye trick...paint over entire eye with Payne’s gray, leaving ‘white’ for the reflection...no masking!  When dry, paint in a dark center of the eye.  At this point, everything is middle value, except for the center of the eye.

For the body of the bird, David had us consider the light source and suggested we put a directional sun on the paper outside the painted area.  The blue tone on the body is reflected light from the sky.  We started with the reflected light shadow on the bird’s chest using intense blue, kissing the edge with clean water and tapping more blue pigment where the shadow starts.  Click here to see step by step photos of David painting the body and background.

Background was added next.  Tape it off, first.  We used a combination of brush strokes...kissed edge and cutting strokes  [Click here for brush stroke definitions].  David wanted to focus the attention on the bird’s head and shoulder area, with the intention of keeping the forward edge of the bird sharp and the back softened.  Load a 1” wash brush with Payne’s gray, Hooker’s green and burnt sienna; paint a sharp edge along the body of the bird and run the paint away from the edge, leaving a very thin line of white on the front edge, around the tail and under the beak; add some alizarin crimson in the background.  Lay your paper flat and let it dry.  Tip: remove tape as soon as painting is dry; pull the tape vertically toward you and always away from the painting.

Next we painted the limb and branches.  Remember the direction of light on the branch.  “Making it round is easy,” per David.  Using his paint into wet technique, first put down clean water over the branch and take away most of the water with a dry brush.  Then, use the rigger brush with Payne’s gray and burnt umber down the center of the branch; while still wet kiss the bottom edge of the rigger stroke with a yellow for the reflected light.  Next add a cast shadow of intense blue on the branch under and to the left of the bird.  Then add a spice color of a weak permanent rose as reflected light under the beak.

On Sunday morning, David showed us how he further detailed his hummingbird.  “In a small painting, use ‘BIG’ painting charm!”  Use a ‘not too heavy’ permanent rose and a wide brush, paint along the back edge of the bird, followed by a kissed edge of clean water down the whole bird...use a light touch.  “Getting the right touch takes practice!”  This helped round the bird even more.  David also pinked the tail, i.e., added a light wash of permanent rose over specific parts of the tail; darkened the toes; added toenails; added a reflected blue on the upper part of the beak, left a thin line of white at the top of the beak and added more cast shadows over the limbs on the right (not shown in this picture).  These added touches are what David calls, “CHARM”.  Tip: permanent rose as a spice color works well with other colors to brighten and spice up the palette.

Hummingbirds painted in class

Before moving on to the Military Macaw, we got a lesson in using the doctor brush to soften hard edges.  The doctor brush is a very stiff brush, typically a Chinese bristle brush, that’s used to carefully soften edges using clean water.  Hard edges happen, according to David, “when you were ‘messing’ around elsewhere and it dried.”

David chose the Military Macaw because of the nice blends, especially the burnt sienna into the green under the beak.  David said there were three things we would focus on....the wash over the body with several colors, the magnificent beak, and the red feathers on the top of the head.  The first thing we concentrated on was the red feather topknot.  We got our paint colors ready....cadmium orange and permanent rose makes a good red, and Payne’s gray.   The goal was to create a unique effect of capillary action, creating a feathery topknot.  First, put a strong background of Payne’s gray around the head....feather out the background pigment using clean water.  At the right moment, i.e., when the dark pigment is still damp but not wet, kiss the edge of the Payne’s gray with a ‘not too soppy wet’ red pigment and lightly nudge it into dark background.  Wait and watch and hope the capillary action works.  It takes some practice.  Some of us ended up using the doctor brush to soften the edge between the dark and red colors.  Key point to remember: two wets blend; one damp & one wet create capillary action.  You can re-wet to make it damp.  In capillary action, wet is drawn into the damp; think of how a damp sponge draws water off the counter into the sponge. Click here to see photos of David painting the body and background.

Another lesson before moving on, the RULE.  There are three planes of depth: foreground, middle ground and far distances.  Never put a dominant dark in two planes as this flattens the painting.  David takes every subject apart and analyzes this.  Ask yourself this: 1). Where is the lightest, brightest, whitest part of the subject?  2). Where are the darkest darks?  This is what David calls “Watercolor Vision.”

The next step is “pure fun” because of the blends.  Get your paint colors ready....yellow, cadmium yellow, or Indian yellow; a yellow green; a green; old Hooker’s green; Payne’s gray; burnt umber.  Use the 1” wash brush and gravity.

Start at the top of the head with a bright yellow, followed by green; use a broken stroke [Click here for brush stroke definitions] around the eye mask.  Notice the darker color under the mask and beak; put a broken stroke of burnt umber & burnt sienna then kiss that edge with clean water.  Continue on with green, then yellow.  Brush in some burnt umber and more green.  Then, drop in some soft feathers using Payne’s gray.  Leave the ‘bright blue’ on the lower feathers, white, as seen in the reference.  This will be painted later.  Don’t wait for the bird to dry.  Continue on with the background of Payne’s gray, alizarin crimson, some dark green and blue.  On the left edge, we want the bird to merge into the background.  So, first use clean water then kiss the edge with intense blue.  As you continue to paint the background, cut in some feathers on top and both sides of the bird and leave some sparkle.

Last stage before class ended: David put definition into the face, starting with the beak.  He wanted to build roundness in the beak by using soft edges and broken strokes, merging Payne’s gray, brown and pink with clear water.  Don’t overwork it.  Some of the face markings are soft and some hard.  Drop in the soft markings first.  Then, using a rigger or 1/4” brush, place broken stroke of Payne’s gray over the soft.  Click here to see step by step photos of David painting the beak and face.

For the eye, paint the entire eye a pale yellow-green, leaving the highlight.  Outline around the eye with Payne’s gray and paint the pupil.  Put neutral tint in the eye corners and push up into the corners with a clean wet brush.... ”these small things add a lot!”  Put a very weak blue into the eye reflection.  The pupil still needs a near darkest dark.  Use neutral tint...take water away with paper towel...and darken the pupil with this darkest dark.  More detailing is needed around the eye.  David used the rigger and drew with it lightly around the eye.

The class was made up of watercolorists from NJ, KY, and all over northeast Ohio.  Everyone agreed that David is an excellent teacher.  Thank you, David, for another amazing workshop!
 

Macaws painted in class