Yellow Warbler

[MickeyMaguire]

Here is the next in my series of birds for the 2017 calendar... the Yellow Warbler. I started on this about 9:00 this morning. I finished it about two hours ago. I made a minor tweak or two after that.



Here is another project I did a couple of weeks ago. I airbrushed the water and oil-brushed the debris on the water. I used the oil brush with little daubs for the texture on the log. The bird itself is mostly color pencil.

[MickeyMaguire]

Here is a screen capture of the reference photo I used to paint the heron image. I took the photo with a Pentax digital SLR and a 400mm lens (left). I used a grid to make sure that dimensions were accurate. You'll see minor variations in color. Textures are similar. I didn't bother to paint in the dragonfly since he was not invited into the composed photograph. I do a lot of work with reference photos. I used to do the same with watercolor, charcoal, and ink sketch.

[D Akey]

Always a treat to see an artist going out and shooting their own photo reference and then taking it wherever they choose. Shows a real passion for your subject. Very nice paintings. Alas birds are hard to get to sit still to paint from live. Thank goodness for cameras.

[DarkOwnt]

Here is a screen capture of the reference photo I used to paint the heron image. I took the photo with a Pentax digital SLR and a 400mm lens (left). I used a grid to make sure that dimensions were accurate. You'll see minor variations in color. Textures are similar. I didn't bother to paint in the dragonfly since he was not invited into the composed photograph. I do a lot of work with reference photos. I used to do the same with watercolor, charcoal, and ink sketch.

Can I ask how you were able to reproduce the shape of the log and bird so exactly the same?

The geometry, every bit of the shape of the log and bird are so incredibly copied from the reference in the exact same proportions, sizes, etc.... it's astounding.

[Caesar]

Birdwatching is birdpainting I'd say! Fine naturalistic gallery.

[MickeyMaguire]

DarkOwnt, a good question. There are three ways that this can be achieved.

I got into a habit many years ago (1974-1976) of using a grid to paint military aircraft murals. With a pretty tight grid, you could map out all the points in geometry carefully. That was really important for something like aircraft.

With modern software, I can plot the image with actual pixel counts in all the major characteristics for the bird and log, for example. The other elements of the composition don't matter.

If someone wants a perfect duplicate they can trace an outline and make reference points, or they can create a grid layer and use that. They can use a layer and pop in a reference image and just trace the outline, make some faint lines for reference on contrast and value, then start filling in the details.

I use several different software packages to do what I do, but, that is where I use my grid and plot the image. After that, I prefer jumping into ArtRage and working on it there. The only thing that ArtRage lacks is a pixel position within the image. I rely on that capability to match point for point. ArtRage does the best job with textures and color blending that I have ever found.