Bluebird Painting Demonstration

I thought I'd share the step-by-step process of my most recent acrylic painting. I've learned so much from seeing others' works in progress, and I think seeing the development of a painting adds to the appreciation of the final work.

I'd started with a wash of fuschia color some time ago, and put the canvas aside until inspiration came. The bright underpainting allows for contrast and adds a luminous quality to successive layers of paint. Working from a photograph, I did a rough sketch on the canvas in charcoal until I had an outline of the bird that I was satisfied with.

The next step was to start painting! Using a pointed, round brush, I pulled the turquoise blue with short strokes in the direction of the feathers. I didn't try to get all the strokes and colors right immediately; I simply paid attention to the main values (lights and darks) of the picture. This is part of the process that excites me most, when the subject starts "popping" off the surface and coming to life!

I began to roughly block in my background with a flat brush, working carefully up to the edges of the bird and flowers. I started to get a little nervous here, wondering if it would all pull together! At the same time, I felt good about the painting and was anxious to press on.

I continued to blend the background and add details to the flowers and feathers. I purposely left some of the underpainting showing through behind the purple flowers in the foreground. 

The finished painting!

Not satisfied with the contour of the bird's body, I trimmed him up a little and corrected the lines by taking some of my background yellow-green color and delicately lining around the base of his throat, beak and back (wing). As a finishing touch, I added a tiny dot of white paint to capture the reflective gleam in his eye.

I hope you enjoyed seeing how the painting developed.

Let me know what you think!

This painting is available for sale on etsy.com under the shop name sallybarone.