White-breasted Nuthatch, gouache.
Here are the last couple stages of the nuthatch painting!
For this nuthatch, I mainly used Payne’s Gray, Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Sienna, Yellow Ochre, and Permanent White gouache. I use combinations of these colors for a lot of neutral-colored birds. I also used mainly round brushes to paint this guy, plus a script liner for the narrow strips of color on the wings and other little details.
I still may go in and try to add more dimension to his wing and belly. But this gives you the basic idea of how I go about painting a bird. Let me know if you enjoyed these posts and whether you’d want more like this in the future!
After blocking out the main colors, I begin layering light and shadow and details on top.
On the white belly and face, I’m still using dilute paint to layer the different hues. I’m also making strokes to indicate feather texture. All the while I’m looking at the reference pictures I’ve gathered to inform my decisions.⠀
On the wings, back, and head, I’m starting to build up shadows and highlights. Here I’m using a much stiffer paint, and mixing in white gouache to make lighter values. Here I’m only adding a minimal amount of water, enough to make the paint flow but not to make it transparent.
A little more work to go—you’ll see the final nuthatch in the next post!