Nesting Bird: A Free-Flow Watercolour Masterclass with Jane Davies

1. Introduction: Hello, and welcome to this intermediate waterclod class. Today, we're going to be painting this sweet little bird sitting on a nest. If you're after a fun, simple class that combines these lovely free flow techniques, you're gonna love this one. There's a great mix of ideas and techniques and an extra bonus egg painting lesson for you. I'm Jane Davis. I live, paint, teach, and walk my lovely spaniels in the beautiful South Downs National Park in England. Over the last 20 years, I've taught myself the free flow technique that you see today. Not having been to art school, finding my own way has been fun and sometimes daunting, but has allowed me to develop my own style. This has led me to teach others either on a one to one basis or as part of a group in a wonderful studio in the heart of the South Downs. I also run a successful art business where two days are never the same from the thrill of exhibiting to painting pet and wildlife commissions in my own home studio. In all my classes, you will follow along in real time, where I can guide you to keeping your work loose and fresh without overfussing. If you're just starting out, my three beginner classes will guide you. With your first masterpiece painted in only 15 minutes. Then you'll find dozens of my master classes available, covering a wide range of beautiful subjects. In each one, I share the techniques I use in my own professional work. We'll have a lot of fun together, and you'll gain the understanding and confidence to incorporate everything you learn into your own work. You'll be amazed at how easy watercolor can be. I provided you with some great reference photos and a downloadable template of the whole piece. The template will give you a stress free drawing so you can just enjoy the painting. We will be putting that lovely free flow technique of mine to good use to create those lovely branches and nest. We'll be getting a little more detailed when we create the Blackbird, building up soft layers to give form and depth of color. And, of course, I'll be showing you how to finish off this painting, including adding those lovely scribbly detail. I've also included an extra relaxed lesson on painting bird eggs with some slightly different techniques from me. If you'd like to learn more about me or my work, then please pop over to my website at Jane Davis watercolors.co.uk. This can be found on my profile page, along with links to my Instagram and Facebook pages. I love to share my art and adventures, especially on stories with many ideas, works in progress, and tales of studio life. I really hope you will share all your paintings on the projects and resources pages. I love seeing your masterpieces. And don't forget I'm here to help if you get stuck or have any questions. I want you to experience that buzz of painting in this liberating wet on wet loose style. So come and join me. 2. Materials: So let me run through all the materials you're going to need to paint this little bird sitting in a nest. Now, before before I go any further, the colors are really up to you. You can choose the colors I've chosen. This is obviously this piece of work here. I did many, many different shades. This one's got a little bit of violet in it, and I think I probably used sort of like genuine excuses. They're all quite rough copies, but that one I couldn't I can't even remember if I'm honest, what I used in that. And I've got here quite a bluey, greeny one. I say, they're all quite rough, but I think hopefully it explains that you can use whatever color you fancy and probably go into a little more detail. You can choose your bird so that may guide you or what colours to select for this little class. So from the very beginning, I have, personally, I've got unsea green, lunar violet. I have transparent brown. I have handsy yellow medium, just for the beak. Rose madder, I don't use that very much if I'm honest through there, but you can see the little pink tones and just a tiny little bit of white grass, which is just for the catch light, nothing else. Uh, paper. This is arches, and it's 140 pound knot, and it's been stretched on a perfect paper stretcher. All these links all these can be found on the projects and resources pages, and I will put a link for the perfect paper stretcher. Obviously got my pot of water. I have some masking fluid, not essential, but it's quite nice to section some of the areas off for it. But if you haven't got it, it doesn't matter. Salt, again, I have used some salt, and it would work. It depends on which paints you pick. They don't work particularly well on granulating paint. But if you choose something that's not granulating, the salt might be quite fun to add some texture. A little rubber obviously just to rub the pencil marks out with kitchen roll or paper towel. I've got an old brush. Now, make sure it's an old brush to do the masking fluid. So that's believe it or not, it was a brush once. I have a pencil. Doesn't matter, a pencil. And I've got my trusty dagger brush, which I love. And yes, I could have painted the whole whole lot in that. But I have got a tiny, tiny number naught. No, sorry, excuse it. It's a number two. I did do some of the eye detail with that. So if you haven't got a dagger, please don't worry. You could easily use a round brush, anything 6-10, probably, but again, don't get too hung up on that. A hair dryer, I do use that just to finish off drawing little sections, but again, not necessary. There's a nice reference photo of the blackbird sitting in a nest. It's not the complete thing. This is a little bit, um out of my imagination for better or worse. So, yes, you can obviously choose your how you design your piece. But there is a picture of the Blackbird sitting there, so I've used her to take a reference from. Um, is there anything else I need to tell you? I feel like I've missed something out, but I don't think there is. No, right. Let's go and sketch her. Let's go sketch her out, and I'll explain a little more about the composition and all that. 3. Sketching Out: Now, before you can do any painting, we need to do a little bit of sketching out. Now, as you can see, I'm painting a female blackbird on her nest. Now, if you're in a different country and you don't have blackbirds in your country and you want to paint something different, then by all means, these stages will apply to any bird on any nest. So let this class just be a guide for you and let your sort of imagination be free, and this would apply to the bow shapes as well. I've decided to go with these sort of shapes into a V, but you could have swung it round into a portrait. Let me just show you some other examples, although they actually all landscape. These bowels are quite an integral part of the overall painting. We'll give you some nice shape. So bear that in mind how you want these to look. And also the nest needs to be able to sit on the bowels you've chosen. So if you've got a weird shape, just try and bear in mind that the nest would have to sit without falling off. I hope that makes sense. So make sure it's all tucked in to the shapes you've chosen. I've gone with these shapes. I don't know why in the end, if I'm honest, they probably just suited the shape of this piece of paper, and I'll show you that it's a very rough little sketch, but that was probably the last one I did and the one I probably liked the most. So with that in mind, I'm just going to give you just a few tips on how I've sketched this out and little bits of points that might be useful for you. But what I will say is always keep your pencil marks as light as you can cause especially on any top portions where ideally the light's falling, so we won't have a lot of paint here. And it's always nice to not have those lines restricted. Any watercolor terms, they call this a lost and fan where it just disappears into nothing. So that's a lovely part of watercolor painting. Whatever bird you've chosen, whether it's the Blackbird or you've chosen your own bird, I'm quite excited to see what everyone does, actually. Just make sure it's right. They do tend to I've looked at quite a few photos of different birds. They tend to sort of snuggle themselves down into the nest. It's quite sweet. And if you're looking for other reference photos, just be mindful. If you look for AI generated ones, they're a little cartoony. They obviously haven't quite got the proportions right, and the bird tends to be very small, and the nests very large. It doesn't really matter if that's what you're going for. But if you want, it's a bit more realistic. Just keep that in mind, it might be a little out of its proportions. As I say, try to make sure the nest actually sort of sits in that those lines of the bowels you've chosen. So I've just sort of roughly put it here. Don't try to do all little twigs, we're going to be quite liberal with how we do our brush strokes, but just get a nice sort of coney shape. And I think that's it, actually. Just make sure you've got the eye in there and you've done that beak because this has probably been going to be quite a loose piece of work. So we need some little areas that are going to be really lovely and tight and neat and detailed. So I would suggest that's the beak and the eye in this class. So yeah, take your time, sketch that out, step away when you've done your sketch. And when you come back 10 minutes, probably all you need, just come back and just reassess, make sure you've got everything down 'cause it makes a big difference. If the sketch isn't right, your painting I find is I don't I will never produce a nice painting if my sketch isn't right from the word go. I tend to lose confidence as well, halfway through if it's not right. So it's an important part, although it's not always my favorite part, it's the most important part. 4. Masking Fluid: So before we even get any paint down, we're gonna put a little bit of masking fluid. This is optional. If you haven't got masking fluid, it doesn't matter too much. It's just a fun way to add a little bit of texture and interest. Now, this is quite a fault. It's all jar. Have I done that right? Yes. Should put that all way over there. Now, a word with masking fluid. Don't whatever you do, use your best brush. I've got a very old brush, which you can see has even got dog hairs attached to it. 'Cause you won't get the gum out, so I tend to use this, if I'm honest. Now, once you've got your net shape you got your nest shaped down, we're just going to be quite random with this masking fluid. It's just to get say, just a few light twigs. Once we can do one layer, we'll rub the mask, we'll rub the masking fluid out, and then we'll be left with these white marks. Now, I quite like it if I go into the bird a little bit, there's a nice twiggy bit that goes back over the herd's tail. All these things just helps ground and make her look like she's actually sitting in there. So you can sort of go back and forth. You could in theory, try just putting these in at the front so it would appear that the light's hitting that nest a little bit more. We'll see you may do this a few times because I think it's going to be quite a fun one. I say, go into the bow as well. It's a Black birds are a little bit more random with their nest making. Some birds are quite neat, and some birds aren't, so I'm going to go out a little bit just to give it a nice bit of texture. Right. And then just for good measure, I'm just going to do a few splats as well. Now, it takes a little while to dry. And once it has dried, we put down out the weight, and we put the lid on that before I knock it over. It takes a little while to dry, and once it has, if there's lines and bits of gum that you don't like, they can always be taken out. So don't panic at this stage. If you've flicked something where you don't want it to be flicked, allow it to dry and we can rub that out. Oh 5. Boughs: Right. Before I do start the bowels, I'm just going to sort of assess where this gum has fallen just while I remember, not sure about this a little bit. I might get that a little bit out. As I say, just go over your own piece. You may have done it perfectly, and you may not want to take any out. I think that honestly might be it. I quite liked. Hopefully, it's been strong enough to go into the bow. Yeah, I think that'd be fine. Right, we are going to do the bow. Well, what you want to do? Pick up your bigger brush, and we're going to wet this bow down. I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go sort of here just so I can pour some of that down in a minute. So I don't want to wet the whole lot. I'll show you how it gives you a nice effect in a second. And just back fill it. And it almost doesn't matter. If you have some it dry patches, I wouldn't thought that matters. It all adds to the sort of texture. Now, I've got unsiGreen I got my lunar violet, and it's pick up the transparent brown. I'm just get rid of the rubber. I don't need that. You're gonna put your paint on the brush at the same time. I'm going to try and work just underneath this bow and just allow that paint to go up. In theory, this is just going to be one layer, so be nice and bold. But that said, if you really needed another layer, you could, but let's try and get enough down on the first layer, and then we're done. We don't have to sort of muddy it and work over it. So you can put colour on top of one another. Don't be afraid. It's just a bow. Has to look kind of somehow I imagine it's to be a bit of a gnarly. She's found herself a really gnarly old bit of hedge or something to tuck herself into. So what we're going to do, probably a little bit more paint on my brush, but some down here. So I'm not particularly worried what paint I put down, what color. I'm just a nice mixture. And then we're gonna touch that wet line, and we're just gonna pull it down. I'll just give another sort of very loose, um sort of I would say random, but it's just allowing. It's just allowing everything to be wonderfully soft. Let's put a little bit more green, probably a little bit too heavy handed with the violet there and put a bit of transparent brown. I suppose, in theory, this would be a little cooler underneath after having just dropped a load of warm brown there. Let's put a bit of violet over the top. And then you can just sort of flick that right out of your board. You could give it a tilt. If it's not moving much or giving you anything very interesting, you could give the board a tilt. I don't want it at the moment. That's forming something quite pretty at the moment. If I tilt this, I will lose this. I don't if you probably can't quite work that out. There's a lot of water sitting here, and I think that's gonna push in and leave quite an interesting watermark. That's all I'm after, especially with the bow 'cause they need to be nice and random, don't they? And yeah, lots of sort of marks. Again, I have got my little, a little bit of salt. If you're not working with very heavily granulated paint, then a little bit of salt can add a nice touch of texture. I don't want to put it in here. Today, I can say, I can see it's forming something nice, so I don't want to touch it and worry that anymore. And it is literally just the same on the next bowel. I've just done a nice old splgeh haven't I got it out later. I'm going to pick up a brush. I'm gonna wet. I'm going to I'm gonna do exactly as I did. Um, on that left hand one. No, right hand one. My left and right is horrendous. I always swear if they were the other way around, I'd probably have a better chance of getting it right. So go carefully round that tail. Sort of work your way round the nest. We will hopefully work on the nest in a minute while these bowels are a little bit tacky still, so we'll hopefully get a little bit of softness, but for the time being, work round the nest. And again, I'm going to come just down to there. Put a little bit there, just there. It just where you can see how I've put the line. And again, I'm just going to do it exactly the same. Let's work on Let's work on this edge. Throw it a little bit more green. Now, I'm standing, and I always stand the paint, but this would be a nice if you're not so comfortable standing for any length of time. Try just doing it for this portion because I think you can get above it, you can see where things are going a little easier. And I think it just keeps everything a little looser in your call a general posture. So it's worth having a little play with, even if it's only for a short time. I have just noticed I got my pink there. I don't really want to add pink into this at the moment. I like the colors, so I'm not going to. I did on some other pieces. But, you just have to go with the flow and see what sort of shakes out whether you want to add that colour. If you do want to add a little bit of pink or a different shade you've got, then by all means do, as I say, I really want this class to be a little bit more free-flow for you as well. So hopefully you can sort of follow along, but also do your own piece if you want to. I put a little bit more painting there, just so we can then when we pull that down, it's got, there's some paint that's going to come into that area. I visualize this as a slightly chunkier bowel, I suppose. So let's pull that down. Again, I don't really want to tilt it because this has worked out quite nicely. This is looking quite nice, as well. So even if this one ideally could do with a tilt, I don't want to tilt because of this side. That makes sense. Let's have a look. I think a little bit more strength, I think. Let's put it underneath the nest. So same theory, that should be a little cooler. More green. I might sprinkle a little bit of salt down there. Why not? Do a couple of twist from yours coming out. Maybe even just a little knot of something. It like that to it so you can actually see there's a fork there in that branch she's chosen. There's no reference photo, really, we're just just having a bit of fun. But yes, just make sure these are lined up, which I probably should have mentioned in the sketching out, as a bowel goes through the nest, make sure it actually makes sense that they would be a continuous thing. Right, I think, honestly, I like what I've done there. I think that's enough. We can fiddle too much. As always, I'm going to sprinkle a little bit of salt on this causes why not? Now, I've put my salt through the other side next to the paint because I normally sit it by the my water. And I think what I've been doing, I've had it there. I've gone to clean my brush, and I've been dripping water into my salt, which then doesn't help with the absorption because the salt's wet. So I'm just putting it onto a wet thing, and it's already absorbed enough moisture so it's not working particularly well. And also granulating paints don't work so well with salt, so I probably won't get much of a result out of this, but it's why not? You might I might get something. And also, you may not be working with such granulated paints. Right, as much as I want to fiddle and do a bit more, I'm going to just allow this to dry a little bit. I've got quite a lot of water here. This is almost dry. Although I want this nest to sort of bleed a little bit into the bout, I don't want it bleeding probably too much. So I'm just gonna give it like a minute probably and see where I am then. 6. Nest First Layer: Okay, so this is settled and just drying a little bit, so I reckon I'm probably good to go for the nest. So loosen up your wrists, little wiry round. It's 'cause we're going to do some lovely sort of sweeps. And again, this would be a really nice time to stand. Again, same thing. If you're sitting, you get a little bit sort of clampy. Um, right. I'm gonna pick up the same colours, actually, I might. Let's have a little bit of that pink. So I've got the four colors in my hand at the same time. And I got to clean my brush just to make sure I haven't got anything on there. And then let's go for it. Again, I'm not going to particularly worry what colors I'm putting there, but probably in theory, I should be doing the cooler colors slightly at the bottom and warming up. And so anything that's the heavier marks at the bottom as it lightens to the top. So let's let me start rather than just talking. I've got my green and the violet. Nice and drip that everywhere. Nice, loose wrist, and we're just going to do some sweeps. We've got two layers to do over here, so don't worry too much. It's probably better to look sparser than it is to look really thick. But it'll be a brown. You can run that in. Some of this, I say, my bowels are a little bit still a little bit damp, but I think that just helps to integrate the nest in into the sort of bow on the painting. Bear in mind, she's obviously started building or they've started building. I think they both do it together. So they would have fallen a little bit into this V shape just so it's not sort of teetering on the top and trying to make it look like it's kind of grounded into that little V shape. And I want to go around her. Sort of sweeps around, doesn't it? Again, it's just a little flicky wrist, it slightly warmer colours up here, tiny bit of pink's quite violent, so I'm not going to use it too too heavy handed. Can I put my brush on the side. Any you can sweep that round So, I'd always say less is more 'cause you can always on the second layer, we can always do more, but you can't take it off very easily. Once you've done it, you've done it. They pick up all sorts of funny things. I say, I'm going to refer back to the Blackbird really I know we've had nesting in our garden. I remember watching one of them pick up a lump of plastic. It's only a little bit of sort of heavy duty bagging, I think. Yeah. So I should imagine that was proudly carried back to nest as nesting material. Now, I wouldn't do any twiggy bits into the bird into her at the moment. We'll do that on the sort of later layers. Now, step back. Whether you're stitting or standing, just have a look. Let's actually put some so it can be very easy to have it all very uniform. So we're doing all these sort of sweeps and it looks a little bit uniform. Have a look at that reference photo. You can see this. I'm actually almost vertical lines going down where they've probably where they started, started adding the material into that gap. Some of those down, as well. I'm getting to the point where I've probably done enough here. A bit of something luna vt, a bit more down there. But brush is quite wet, so it's hopefully keeping everything nice and soft. And I'm not worrying if this is a bit damp, and it's all sort of bleeding into the bowel. Trying to keep it a little bit warm as I go up. Almost feel like I need some more colors. Such a color junkie. That's a little bit more green on the top. Right. I think I need to stop, 'cause we can do all these funny twiddly bits on the next layer. Yes, I'm gonna down those paints 'cause it's quite enjoyable, as well, isn't it? And it's easy to get carried away. And actually, what would be fun if you'll find you're sort of a fiddler and want to carry on covered my hand in paint. You'd almost do two side by side, even if it's just a really rough copy. Um you know, for instance, you could have done a tiny version like this next to it. Sometimes it's just enough for you to stop your main piece, go on to another bit and stop you fiddling, what you consider going to be your more important piece. Anyway, we just ideally need to allow that to dry, really. And actually, while I'm allowing this to dry, I've just sort of soaked up those spots, and if you haven't come across a magic sponge, they are brilliant. So they come in a little square. I've just ripped off a corner. They're actually cleaning product. But they are fantastic for getting rid of any spldges like this I don't like seeing it. If I'm working, and I can see there's sort of it's got a bit mucky. I I don't know, makes the whole look thing look a bit untidy. So I don't like to see that in my only view somehow. I'm getting to get rid of those, but actually you can see. I would say, the Daniel Smith paints are very unforgiving, so forgiving, should I say, and will lift out quite easily, too. So, yeah, that's just while I was thinking of it, they're a useful thing. And I'll put a link on the projects and resources page to that. 7. Birds Body First Layer: Right, let's start the little bird. Let's get to see her. So I'm just going to wet down the front portion. So it's coming down to here. You can see on that reference photo, there's sort of a line where she's snuggled in. Now, go really carefully because she's got black birds have got a nice yellow surround around that eye. So go nice and carefully around that. I've just noticed that's a little bit damp there. Se me putting my fist on something that's not completely dry. I can avoid that. Okay, so we're coming round. So, take your time wetting this a little bit down 'cause we want to keep that nice yellow beak nice and clean. Yeah, I tend to work on the outside and then back fill it, so I know I've got the shape right. And don't worry if it blends, I would touch the nest material, and if it blends, that's perfect. Then I duck my head up and down just to see I've got everything nicely covered. And then we're going to add some colour. Now, a female blackbird is a little is browner, and just paler. The male blackbird is quite predominantly dark and black. So some of my practice pieces, it got a little mole like, and I don't think the males ever sit on the nest. I may be hopefully I'm not wrong on that one. So try if you're doing the Blackbird, try to keep her nice and brown. I've only got the transparent brown today I'm using and the Luna Violet. But, of course, if you've got something, you think, Oh, you know what? That color would be perfect, then by all means, use those. I didn't want to add too many to my desk, which I'm always a bit guilty of. Right, I'm going to start. Let's start on the back here. Again, that's just going to allow that colour to blend and bleed. A little bit more lunar violets. Try and keep her a little bit dark, not that warm. Just keep an eye on that reference photo, look for the darker areas, and the light will take care of itself. Let's have a little bit of pink in there as well. Tiny bit of warmth on that. Already probably quite a warm color. It's a transparent brown. I've been really mindful to go carefully up around that big. We're gonna do two layers over here, so this layer is just the first one, so it doesn't matter if it's a little washed out and pale and you haven't got some of those darker sort of markings there. Then don't worry too much to say, it's just the first layer, this one. I don't know if we have a squint. Squinting sounds such a corny thing to say. The artist's squinting at her work, but it does make a big difference, actually. Just see that where those darker areas are. She's got some lovely sort of frecky marks, but I'm not going to worry too much because they can actually be taken out, so I'd rather get a nice sense of float than trying to sort of reserve those flecks. But there's something a little bit heavier here it'll get a little bit cooler in there while it's where she's sitting a bit more strin. Right. I'm now going to wet the back feathers first. So I'm working towards the back. Gonna leave this one separate. We're gonna do a quick flick, hopefully, and then we're joining it up, just allowing your colours to flow. So there's a bit of strength of dark down there, isn't it? The back feather? Did you ask keep? Just keep out my eye on that reference photo. I quite like that light I've got there at the moment, so I might keep that. Say we will do another layer. So obviously, there'll be another layer of paint going over the top of it, but it's always nice to leave light if you can. Let's have a little look. I think that's quite nice. I love, and this is where it's gone very grainy, partly the paint, and partly because we've wet this, and then it's been allowed to then run into here, so it's sort of hauled into that back area. So I'm just going to allow all that to dry. I will definitely need a bit a little bit more Luna violet, because she's quite brown at the moment, but it's probably better than being black. I don't quite want to do those tail feathers quite yet. If I do these lovely sweeps up there, I'm gonna lose this it's going to obviously join up with the tail feathers. And I'm just gonna hold fire and allow that to dry. If by any reason, you know, yours is nice and dry, you could skip ahead, but I'm just gonna allow that to dry. 8. Birds Tail: Right. This is nice and dry now, so I'm going to do that lovely sweeping tail up there. Bigger brush. And I'm gonna I think I'm just gonna stick with the lunar violet, actually, causes as you can see on that reference photo, the tail's quite dark, as well. So I'm gonna brush nice and plenty of paint on there. Sorry. I actually what I'm gonna do. I'm just going to paint a little bit on there. So it's a really nice, sticky consistency. I've gone carefully around those feathers. And then I'm just going to just use the brush. I'm gonna sweep up. Careful here. And actually, if you leave little white bits, this is lovely, it's a nice sense of light flicking on that tail. It's just come down here. What I do want to do because they haven't got a fluffy tail at the end, I just want to round that off. L's clean the butt pot that down. I don't think I need any more paint. Of course, I can always add another layer when we do the other layer of the body, so there's something not quite right. As you can see that kind of looks a bit better that it's rounded off 'cause she hasn't got she hasn't got a fluffy tail. And that's just still allowing that nice light. Just making sure that it all looks outside, shape looks all right. Yeah, I think that's come together well. It's chicken that's chicken. That's the white shape. And then there's also the other little, doing the bite again, so I just poking my brush in there like I do when I'm on my own. So again, same thing, a little bit of paint to the bottom. I've cleaned my brush off, taken excess moisture off because I don't want this wet. And then because we've only got a tiny area to work with. So let's try and just brush that up, so I'm brushing it into dry paper. Yeah, I think that's alright. Actually, what I might do, 'cause that little portion there looks a little bit brownier to me. I'm just gonna drop a little bit of brown paint in there. And that that's sort of the main body done. Um, I said, there will be another layer over that. So we're gonna do the eye and the beak necks, I think. 9. Outside of Eye and Beak: Right. First in thirst, we are going to do the little yellow rim around the eye. So I'm actually going to use mytanibush. And if you have been standing, then I would definitely sit at this point. Sounds quite nice. But I'm gonna continue standing as I I haven't really got the setup to sit. Right, so very carefully, go round that yellow. Now, it doesn't matter so much if you go inside, but try to keep the outsides. What you don't want to what you want to avoid is making this ring too big. So it wouldn't matter if you go inside because we're obviously going to darken that inside area. So if you can't get it, you know, really nice and slim, work, concentrate on getting the outside nice and neat and small. Don't worry, on the reference photo, you can see some bits are a little bit wider than others, but say, we're just trying to concentrate on that shape, the outside shape, shall I say, sorry. So yes, once you have something like that, then we're just going to we will need to allow that to dry. And I will hang on to my little brush because we're going to do the beak neck, be nice and small. Let's start. Let's start at the bottom one. So keep in mind those sort of creases and where the beaks beak generally go inside a bird. Quite often, people will just sort of stick them right on the outside. But obviously, if you've yeah, taking time to sketch it out, you'll get that right anyway, but just in case it's worth remembering it needs to go inside, inside the body, not stuck on the outside. So we're just going to draw that out just a little bit of light so light genuine. I haven't actually got so light genuine on my table, even today, so a little bit of brown to them transparent brown, at the end. As you can see, the beaks a little bit browner, and it will be a little bit cooler and darker at the bottom. And even if it isn't can add a little bit just to give that definition of the join. Poking away at a bit of Luna Violet again to darken that a little bit more. So so one of the reasons I love painting out the tube is that it can be right next to the subject, so you're just sort of tapping in and out. Make sure we keep that nice and yellow, though. That's a little bit dark now. Let's just put that luma down stop my temptation of sticking my brush in it. And it's quite pale at the end, isn't it? So we really want the strength at the base and not so much at the tip. So just take your time. Always worth getting these little bits lovely and tight. And if you love fiddling, this is the time to fiddle. It's the little bits, they say, the beak and the eye. I've got a little bit of pink there. The upper. Lit to me, a little greeny. F may have put the pink on the table, not actually going to use it very much. I think that looks alright. Now, I can continue with the top portion, but I will try to leave the tiniest of lines because what I don't really want it doing, ideally you would let this drive. It all gets a little bit a bit much, isn't it? Little tiny areas dry. But so I'm going to leave a tiny, little white line. I can join that up in a second. So this will be a little bit lighter. In theory, she's you know, I can see the light coming from the top here, so let's keep that a little lighter. And you can touch the body color, and that will just gently blend as well. So it to a new bit of just brown brown. We're really confident I can just very gently join them up or just leave a tiny little white line. Again, that's just a nice definition of where the join is. Again, you can do another layer over that. So don't overfddle. Just do the one and get what you like down, and then you can always add to it once it's dried, so it's always better to allow layers to dry and then add another one if you want to continue with some more strength or some more detail. Right, this should, with any luck. But just to be on the safe side, I'm just gonna get a quick hair dry. 10. Inside of Eye: Right, let's fill in the inside of the eye. Now, if you've got that reference photo opened up, I would really scroll in so you can see that eye nice and clearly. And I'm going to start off with the brown. Always start in the middle. It's always gonna look really weird, but then we can edge our way out and start sort of getting that shape right, say, take your time. It's no hurry. It was no paint drying or lots of paper drying if we're painting straight onto dry paper. We just want to make sure we get that shape. Nice and neat. Keep flicking your eyes back and forth to that reference photo. If you do it enough and quick enough, they almost superimpose themselves, so Yeah, keep keep flicking back and taking your brush away as well. That's always a useful tip. It gonna start adding a little bit of darker color to the top, 'cause although it doesn't necessarily show it on the reference photo, actually, it shows a lighter area, I'm still gonna work a little bit darker on the top. Probably defaulting back to how I paint animals a little bit more. There's an eyelid, but I'm gonna roll up my old excuse, as well, because I can't get that close to this. I think I'm gonna leave it there, and once the camera it's off. I will just reshape that a little bit. And you can see, actually, I haven't been that careful of going round when we did that first layer, so I'm gonna have to make sure I go right up against that yellow when we wet this bird down again. But yes, just that needs to be allowed to dry. That's gonna worry me now. Let me just take that off. Um, That's better. All these little things you see mistakes? I often it does to me anyway. I'm like, Oh, no, don't like that. That's gonna have to go dadda. Um, yes. So I'm gonna just gently off camera, just shake that a little bit. But, yeah, just take your time. And then we need to put a little pupil in, but ideally, that needs to dry first. 11. Birds Body Second Layer: Right. Actually, before I put the pupil in, I think I might do that right at the end. I want to get a second layer over this little bird, and I'm going to try and get right up against that yellow because to me it looks a bit odd at the moment. So pick up your bigger brush, and we're going to do the second layer. Same things apply, same way we're going to do it. So we're going to wet down head portion go a little bit over there, but all those things corrected either with a dry brush right at the very end. Or we can use that magic sponge. Now, I'm going to make sure I go right up against that yellow. Well, what are we around? Now, mine has gone. She looks somewhat anemic at the moment, so I'm gonna have to be qui at stronger with that, una violet. Now, obviously, you may be doing a completely different bird, so just check on your reference photo, check where you are, and just see where you think you need that depth. What we're looking for is just adding the darker areas at this point. So you may have a lot of dark areas like I have, or you may just have a few that might be just a little bit sort of here and there. You need to add a bit more strength, too. So, as always, as we work our way through these classes, we all start to have different we're all working on different areas we need to concentrate on, especially if we're doing different species of birds just to complicate matters a bit. Let me just uncroe my painting. Sawing a reference photo from what iPad. I Right. I am going to keep hold of transparent brown, but I am going to be predominantly using the lunar violet. I might get to use that pink. Right. So I need to squint my eyes, and I definitely need more dark here. So I've been quite bold. 'cause we're gonna with some of that back down into the back, as well. So let's, if I squint my eyes, I can see there's probably going to keep this little bit portion clear. It work too much. You see actually where there must be some dry paper here. You can see where it hasn't moved. But I just want to concentrate on getting her a little bit darker. And getting around that eye, as well. So there's a nice bit a little bit of transparent brown. There's a nice bit round her eye. You can squint, you can see it's almost like a little mask, isn't it? I say, really careful that yellow. Once you lose that yellow, you're really hard to get it back again, 'cause it's obviously a very light colour. And we're working quite dark. Try to make sure I get right up against those edges where I'm standing. Is there a white patch there, as well, is it? Really wants to sew light genuine now. I haven't added it to my table. I love sewed light genuine. If you've followed some of my classes, you know how often I use it as well. Just such a useful color. But let's stick with this for the time being 'cause I Yes, I like the I love the I like lunar violet. It's not one I've Sometimes you put these paints and you have them in your drawer, don't you? And they sort of sort of fall out of favor for some reason, or even get stuck behind the back of the drawer, and you just don't use them much. And you think, Oh, I. I love that. Shadow violet is another one. It's not probably one that I would use often cause it's not a particular animal shape, but animal color. But if you haven't coming across that, that's a lovely color. Right, take my brush away, let me have a little look. I still need a little bit of depth here. It bit tiny bit it Transparent brown on the top there. It's come over a little bit more. Luna violet. Really keeping mind to keep that beak shape nice. Not to go into there. How is she looking? Yes, definitely better. And if you find a lot of people seem to say, Oh, my paper, you know, my paper is drying really quickly on me. If you look and you find there, Oh, this is still damp, then you can just add. I don't really want to do it because it's already probably quite saturated, but you can, you know, get more water on your bi and just drop it onto the area you're working on. So as long as it's all dry, but if you've got bits that are starting to dry, that's when it's not ideal timing, but if it is, if it's um If it's still a little bit damp, yeah, you can sort of reignite the paper and get that little bit damp again. Keep 'cause ideally, I don't want to do another layer, so I want to make sure I've got enough strength down there and got her dark enough. I think she's quite like this light area here. It's looking quite nice. Um, the bit here. I know I said I wasn't going to go into this area, but, yeah, see if I could just tap a little bit of dots. See if I can start to create that? She just keep looking back at that reference photo, so I caught it on my desk and my eyes are flicking back and forth. I'm trying to think eye has gone a little off shape, I think, but I can, uh there's a bit of light here. You can always take light out. So be careful because these paints almost lifted out too easily. So be careful. It's a little patch under here, as well, isn't it underneath her eye here. I get that out. The nice thing about taking colour out at this stage, rather than it's completely dry, is it leaves a sort of softer mark. You see, when you do this when it's dry, it will be quite an obvious slo can be an obvious slot. Um, rub out, but a little bit depends on your paints and your paper you're using. Eyes definitely gone a little strange. Um, but oh I can't get any closer at the moment. Right. Before this does dry, I'm going to do what we did last time. I'm gonna touch that area, and I'm gonna wet the back. Now, again, I'm going to make sure I touched that tail color just so if it just blend, that's great. Again, just assess your piece. I think I want a little something a bit darker here. It's a tail feather going in there, isn't it? A little bit longer back there. She's also got those nice speckles, so tap some of those in if I tap this in when it's really wet and it'll be ever so soft when it dry. There gonna be a car up there just to get that wing definition back. I think she's looking right. Just a little bit more. I think lovely unaviles beautiful for that granulating effect, isn't it? It's really lovely. Little bit colour there. So I can always go back because we've obviously let some of that color into the back, you may find you need to go back in here and strengthen. I think she's almost there. I do need to correct this eye, but that's me being a little way away from this painting. And yes, I think I've gone into the yellow, haven't I me saying, Be careful. Don't go into the yellow. I'll give her a little go in a minute when I can get a touch closer. I get that band back again. That's disappeared, isn't it? It's like a If you look at that reference photo, there's almost a a little band here. So Right, I'm starting to get to that tricky stage. I can feel it's starting to dry because my paint isn't moving very much. And I can although it's not as easy for me to see with this light that I film under, I can feel it. So have a little check. If you're still fiddling like your I am, just check you've still got that. It's still wet enough. If it's not, then we're probably all sort of starting to fall into that rather tricky, um stage where it's beginning to dry and adding more water at this stage because we've already fiddled, it can get a little bit mucky. And if worst comes to worst, you're like, Oh, no, I really need to do more. It would still be better now. At this stage, you just leave it, let it dry completely, then re wet it and just work on the areas you wanted to sort of fiddle with now. So I'm going to down my brush and allow that to dry, and I'll probably have a little fiddle with that eye while we're allowing our birds to dry. 12. Nest Second Layer: Right, ho. Um, neaten up my eye a little bit. Looks a bit better, doesn't it? What we're going to do now is to rub out this masking fluid, but make sure all the elements are nice and dry before you start rubbing. So nice clean hand. And you're just gonna you rub masking flew it out. Remember if you've got some over the bird, rubbing out too. Rubbing. I'm also gonna rub out any of the petal marks, as well. And that salt. Salts finally give me it a bit of something, hasn't it down there? Always quite satisfying rubbing masking fluid it out, isn't it? That it to. What's something like? I think it's all good. What can you hear that away. Fab. Right. And what we're gonna do now is just to add more strength to that nest cause obviously it's a little washed out and it needs a little bit more body. So, exactly the same as we did with the first layer, really, but we're gonna do a few more sort of twirly bits and just give it a little bit more texture. So I would go look at your nest, actually, and what colors you think you'd like to add a bit more, you know, more colour too. So I think I'm going to constra little bit darker down here. We'll use that pink. And actually, the pink's quite nice here, I've used a bit there. So yeah, be a judge of what color you'd like to pick up and use, but it will be the same technique. So let's start with the loon. Actually let's have them all in was eye. In my hand at one time, I was eye neglected that pink down there. So, again, you have the same movement. And don't worry about rustling up any of that bottom layer with existing layer. That doesn't matter. It's all gonna add to that sort of scent of texture and lightness. And you can say, lay your brush at different times, different sort of angles. I know I've got this wedge paper, but even if you've got, you know, just a normal round brush, just lay your brush in different angles. It can be wet down in areas, not wet down in other areas. So you're really just after making a bit of a sploge really, but a mindful splodge. Because it is easy it's too easy to get a little bit muddy, but I would suggest always just stepping back and having a look where you're at. So it's quite easy to sort of get carried away and head down in you're working away, and before you know it, you've overdone it. So I'm just starting to add a few twirly bits in here as that begins to dry as well. So I want in theory, keep it a little warmer up here, a little lighter, not quite so heavy. I suppose your theory it would be a tiny bit darker underneath her tail. She what up against her. Again, I can twiddle around. I can twiddle into her, as well, so don't forget about that. Dry marks. You can use your fingernail. That's often quite fun, actually. So that's just just laying my fingernail on the edge. Just pulling any bits out, 'cause that'll be quite um, quite squiggly. You can see it's very fine. Again, it's just after adding different textures. Try to keep away from it just to make sure I'm not overdoing it. A little bit dwiddy up here. The good thing about this brush is, it's got a lovely point to it, so it's although it's quite a big brush in some ways, it's also quite fine. So I can pretty much do most paintings with this. It's useful to do a little bit at the back here 'cause she's obviously sitting in a nest. Just do a few little bits into the body. But for any reason, you think you might be doing another layer of the body. I won't be, but if in case you do, then just hold fire with putting anything into the body. I think that's looking right. Don't want to get Don't want to lose all those white marks that we've carefully, painstakingly, masking fluid off. It's just a a bit of texture with a real spludge of paint. Twiddle a few bits out here as well. So I kind of want to get a sense that it's sitting sitting in that crook of the bow rather than sitting sort of Yes, sort of floating into it. Concentrate on that and talk. Right. I'm going to leave it here at the moment, because it's just so tempting just to keep adding these sort of flicks because they're so they're so enjoyable to do, aren't they? But it's easy easy to overdo it. Put those down. You can add pencil marks, ink marks as well when we do the finishing off bits, which I can show you. But if in doubt, don't overdo it cause you can always add more, and it doesn't matter if you add more when it's completely dry as well, because that will just again add to the different complexities of it. So hold fire and see what you've got and we'll analyze it once it's dried. 13. Finishing Off: So we're really on to the finishing off bits. There's obviously a little eye we need to finish and the beak. But what I find really useful at this stage in the process, because we've been painting for an hour, maybe an hour and a little bit, is to take a picture of your own work. So I'm going to do just that. And I will analyze my picture from my photo. Off I won't show you the photo because you're looking at the screen, but the picture. But I am quite pleased with it, actually. I obviously need to rub out these pencil marks. I like the overall bird and the shape. The tail feather looks a little disconnected. It's 'cause there's no brown in here. So what I might do in a minute is just to wet that down and just pull a little bit of brown just so it looks they look united. To me, they look a little stuck on, which in theory, they actually were. They were painted separately, weren't they? I will do a few pencil marks into this nest just to give a little bit more. Yeah, just different textures. I don't think I want to do any more painting on here or even any paint brush marks. But again, I say, as we sort of work our way through these, we all have slightly different issues and things we want to work with. So first thing first, I think, is to get the eye done and rub these pencil marks out because we can kind of see what we're going into. I think getting rid of pencil mark is a really lovely thing you I just releases a lot of stuff, especially if you've got these edges like the bow. You can see it just disappears, then, doesn't it? It's not being constrained by any pencil marks. I won't do much rubbing it always rubs the desk around, and it gets a bit warbly, so but you get the gist, so I'd rub it any pencil marks that you see out, and let's get the eye done and little white catch light. So the best thing to do if it's we need to really put that blab pop still got it blob of water there. We still need to put the pupil in. It's actually quite obvious on that reference photo, but birds generally don't see them particularly well, but we will put one on, and we're going to wet down the entire eye area. Try not to misshape it at this stage again. And I'm just going to use a tiny little bit of lunar violet. She I don't want it too wet, so if it's sitting in a little bobble of water, either suck it up with a little bit of kitchen roll just by the edge there or with your brush, but we'll also make sure that's sort of drying. A little simply, we'll put that in the middle. And just allow it to gently spread. It's not that obvious. But it will be enough, hopefully, just to sort of give a little bit of depth, and you'll be able to just to see it. And also is to take out light. So little tiny brush, it's got no paint on it. I've taken the excess. I've just done that. Excess moisture with my finger, and I'm just wiping away some of the color. And that will also show that pupil off a little bit more. If you've watched it away like I probably have at this stage, so it's always a little awkward for me to see these type of details. You can always pop it back in again. So they're not like a dog's eye or particular cat's eye. The pupils generally quite blended in. Okay just as gently. Just work away. You can always spend a little bit of time fiddling. There's no harm in it. And quite often, you're like, you're working away, and all of a sudden, you take your brush away and go. That's it. I'm done. And it suddenly appears in front of you. So take your time. Don't panic. I think I'm just about there, actually. And with that little white catch light, it'll make all the difference. So we're going to do another little layer on this. Big. Gonna work underneath. I just want to make that a little bit more a little bit warmer, a little bit more orangy. So although I haven't got the orange, obviously, if you have an orange, then grab your orange, if it's a little yellow like mine, but I'm trying to be good and stick with some limited colors. So I've got the transparent brown and a little bit of pink, just to warm it up a little bit more. And if you've lost like I have a little bit, you've lost some of that beak, that nice marking not markings, but it'll tick into the body. Then you can always just wipe that color away and just refine it again. Again, if this line, maybe left that little white line, if that looks too obvious, you can then squeege that up so you lose it. Be careful you don't lose the line of the beak, we'll make that look odd. Again, it's just gently working away, really. Looking at your reference photo, seeing what you need to adjust. I lost some of this, haven't I hear?claim some of that. Take your brush away. It's always such a useful thing just to lift it away, see where you're at. Yeah, it more shrimp there. My papers just damp, at this point, so it's sticking quite well. Yeah, that makes difference, doesn't it? Again, I can go back onto the top. I don't think at this stage, because it's a second layer now. Even if we touch it underneath, it's still gonna won't it shouldn't bleed too much. There's not a lot of color there. And second layers don't move as much as first. Again, I can just assess where I want the color a little bit maybe at the top. And there is a little nostral mark, which again, of all these pieces, all these classes, actually to paint them a lot larger would be easier in some respects, because when you're doing little fine details on something small, it's harder. It seems like it should be easier somehow 'cause you got It's not so daunting, is it, but it can make it more challenging, I find. I think that looks alright. It's always good just to sort of, take your brush away, have a little look. And even if we rest it for a little bit and re analyze it again in a minute. So let's do that tail feather. It's a shame 'cause I've got that nice little sweep of that. Yeah, I love how that light has formed on there, and we've got that little bit of bowel there as well that's gone across the tail. But let's do let's do the top portion. I'm just gonna wet that top portion down again. I actually might just bring it into the body a little bit, just to soften it a touch. And then I'm going to add that transparent brown. It's very gently. You may not need to do this, so please just to say, look at your own piece. If you like your tail and you've achieved that nice unity, then I wouldn't worry personally, but Unfortunately, I can't see if I want to work. Otherwise, that would be amazing, but I can't be a judge. Soften this into the body just so it all joined up a little bit more. And there are quite some intricate feathered markings in here, aren't there, which you could sort of tinkle with if you like the detail, then you could. But I'm going to leave it a little bit simple. So the idea of this class was quite easy, quick, play, really, with some nice a nice subject. Use that in a little bit more. Fab. Yes, that looks better to me. It feels a little more united. Just that little bit of transparent brown sort of marrying the two up. Right. The little catch light is probably one of the last little bits we need to do. We might take a little bit of color out to try and get that freckling on the chest area, but So I picked up a little bit of white gouache I've had off the table. Nice and sticky. And we're gonna put. I always I still default back to probably the dog positioning so it's top and to the front. Just like that. It makes all the difference, isn't it? It's amazing. Right. Let's see if we can dry brush, a little bit of transparent brown. I give it a bit of a squeeze if I can get the paint to the top without squirting it somewhere. So I'm just running my brush along the top. Like, have a nice angle, and I'm gonna see if I can just tap some of that. Those little freckle marks. Make sure you get in the right direction. They're obviously sort of coming down, aren't they? And then run across. I don't want to do too many. I can also take a little bit of color out, so I might do that as well in a minute. Actually, what we didn't do, which is a shame I should have done that a lot sooner. That settle it was some little flicks, but it's probably gonna look a little stuck on 'cause this is the trouble we're putting flicks on at the end. Let's soften that down and do a few little flicks. Yeah, so apologies. That was my me forgetting to do those little flicks. Yeah, that's caught some of those little freckles, isn't it? And again, you can just take a little bit of colour out so it's scrubbing away just in random little places. It's a nice one that comes get the angle right. It's a nice one that comes off here, isn't it? Go careful because if you're working with the same paints, they lift ever so easy, so you can just take quite often just squidg it with my finger. I think that's enough. Oh, it's find. You know, we've been painting for a little while, and it's so easy to over fiddle, like I'm doing now, without sort of analyzing it with a fresh pair of eyes, I know. Bang on about that, but it does make a difference cause you can walk into the room and go, Oh, that's so obvious. I know exactly what I need to do. But if you carry on fiddling, at this point, you're almost blind to it, I feel. But, you know, that's just my perspective on things. But very last thing we need to do I said, I would do is some pencil marks, some squiggly pencil marks just to give another texture to this nest. And a good thing about using a pencil, especially if you've got, you know, quite a soft pencil, which obviously gives you a harder mark. Then you can rub them out if you don't like them, so it makes you be a little bit freer, I think, because you know you can get rid of them. So just have a little have a little play. Just scratching. You could do this with a pen if you're feeling a little bit more confident, you get a little pen, Little fountain pen again. I can do the same. Can't get rid of these, so that's once you put that mark on, you're done it. But, yeah, it's quite nice to get a bit of contrast, isn't it? But easily, easily overdone. So if in doubt, leave it, and say, leave it for an hour. Come back. See what you think, see if you need any more sort of squiggly lines. Or any splat, you could do that or splatters. I haven't done that on any of my practice pieces to show you. Uh let me let me do it on this, see what you think. So this is and I have done, actually. So this just excuse the bird she's a bit a little bit weird, but, you can hopefully get the idea. So if you did want some splats, I'll just picked up the brown, popped up in my brush, and then you just flick your finger underneath the brush, and you just flick back. And that adds another, another kind of if you want to if you feel like you've lost some movement. You can always add that, so let's just put a few in here. Yeah, it's quite fun, actually, isn't it? Ovely. So let me down my brush 'cause I think we are done. So I hope you enjoyed this. I hope it's a lovely freeing piece, you say, it was only intended as a quick little exercise, really, and it's sometimes hard to keep that in mind, isn't it? To keep this nice and easy and free. And as ever, please pop these up on the projects and resources pages, especially if you've done a different species of bird and a different nest. And I can see hummingbirds and all sorts of things. So actually, hummingbirds may not be so good. I think they do a little round nest, don't they? A little hangy one. Anyway, if you've done a different species, I'd love to see it. If you've done the Black Bird fab, I'd love to see that, too. And again, any questions. You might be stuck on something. I haven't made something clear enough. Then in the discussion section on each class, ask me there. That's the best place to reach out. I'll pop your painting on the projects and resources pages. And if there's something particular you want me to look at, and then pop it on there and just under the comment, say, What do you think about this? Could I have done something different? I'm always there to help. Yes. So thank you as ever for joining me, and I do really look forward to seeing your projects. 14. Bonus Eggs Part One: So I hadn't really planned on this little extra bonus lesson for you. But when I was looking for some reference photos for the little blackbird sitting on the nest, obviously, I came across some eggs, and how beautiful are they? So I thought we could have a go at them. Why not? So I've kept the transparent brown and the undersea green, and I've got a magnesium blue hue. Now, obviously, if you're painting if you've painted a different bird completely, you might want to find their eggs and the colour colors of their eggs. I should imagine they're all going to be of a similar way to paint them, but obviously, I'm going to be painting the blackbird eggs. So They're ever so easy. Lots of water. And actually, I found blowing the paint around is really lovely for creating some texture, not something I normally do I do like to drop the paint in and leave it. It's gonna be slightly different because it's actually quite nice to mix it around. On the paper. So I suppose, in theory, you could be doing some mixing in palates, if you like that sort of thing. But I'm actually going to just mix straight on the paper. So I've wet down the egg completely, same amount of water, so the paper's nice and saturated with a good gleam, but it's not sitting in puddles. I've got the blue, Itual pick up the blue and the green's a bit harder with a smaller tube. Now, we're just gonna pop that color down. Look at that. Isn't that a lovely blue? I was rummaging around trying to find the right blue, and I haven't used this paint much. I must admit. Or at least not for a very long while. But it's rather the yummy. So the thing is to get these eggs a really lovely shape. So I hadn't actually done a sketching out section, have I, but, um, there'll be a reference photo there, and I will pop a template in there. So Yes, just sketch them out, get the right shape because if the eggs don't look egg shape, they look like something else in theory. So yeah, make sure they get a nice shape. And I've just put the green on top. I'm giving it a really good old rustle round, which is, I say, really goes against what I normally do. But I found it creates quite a nice egg. I'm still trying to leave this. I'm going to always I'm trying to keep an eye sort of idea there's light coming from one direction. Actually, we're looking at the reference photo, I think it's coming straight from above, isn't it? But let's just try and keep one portion. A little more light filled at the top than the bottom. Now, what am I going to do with this straw, if you're wondering why I've got a straw? You don't need a straw. You can just blow, but obviously, you don't want to see my head appearing underneath the camera blowing. So Just give it a little blow and you can see if you've got a nice textured piece of paper, that's sort of pushed that paint across the grain, and it's leaving it quite granulated. I'm gonna leave that one. That color. Obviously, it can all be slightly different, so let's crack on with the next one. Oh, look at that for a pun. Crack on. It's It's amazing how you say these silly things when you're painting or doing a thinking of a particular subject. Amuse myself. Okay, let's I'm gonna pick a little bit of I might know. I'm going to keep that try and stick to those sort of colors. This one's low one's still a bit quite bluey, isn't it? So just rustle those in. So yeah, no dropping. You're putting the color down and you're giving a good old rustle round. The only rule I would say still applies if once it starts to dry, leave it. But as long as you've got a lovely sit puddle of water or so your papers nice and wet, then you just carry on. It's interesting. It's always worth playing with different ideas and thoughts, isn't it? So Let's just move out. I'm gonna try and keep them separated so they're not running into one another. Just give a bit more at the bottom. It's a little bit darker down here, isn't it? It might be a bit too dark. Let's see how that goes. Give me a bit more of a rustle. Put a bit more blue on top so we can get a bit bluer. Okay. Lost the point here a little bit. Not the point of doing it. It's the point of the egg. Yeah, let's give that one a little little puff. Fab. Let's move on to the next one. I'm gonna put a little bit more brown in this one cause this one looks a bit more browny, doesn't it? All fleckled. So, same again. We'll write it all down. So try and keep them separate 'cause obviously, if I touch this egg here, it's going to run the colour gonna run into this egg down here, Sona keep them separated if I can. I'm going to pick up the transparent brown. I'm gonna put the brown and the green one to start with. Actually, the tricky is actually to keep that real egg shape, 'cause it's quite easy to go outside the line somehow. Let's put the blue on top. But they are quite an exquisite thing, aren't they? Bird eggs? I suppose you don't We don't often we rarely get to see them, do in real life, as it were, so we only see them on photos, but they are just little things of beauty. I have noticed while I've been washing up and looking out the garden that I think we have a wren busy making a nest in our hedge. And that will be I think they do a little domed nests, at least the wren here in the UK. So always take your it's still same rules sort of apply in taking your brush away, having a little ponder, see what you think, see what colors you think you need to add. And it's quite nice they're all a bit different. I wouldn't you know, they are all different when you look at them individually, but it's nice not to repeat the same thing. And you may even decide not to give one a little blow, you know, you may want to keep one a little more. You know, not so grainy. Yeah, I can quite like the color of that one. Give it in another uf. Lovely. And then on to the next one. This one's a little more brownie again, isn't it the top one? Trick is now not to touch this one here. I'm working at a weed and, I can't turn the paper. And then we're gonna add. I'm gonna put a bit more say a bit more brown at the top. Huh, that's going a bit greenie. That's a bit more brown. Worth a quite brown, isn't it? It's bit interesting to see if we put the blue on there, how big we can get that to change. Let's skew that blue Oh top. And, of course, you can always do more layers. So if one egg just hasn't got quite enough depth to it, you can go over. I probably won't just 'cause I feel like it's a bit of a bonus anyway, and how much time you want to spend on these. But, um, yes, you can always do another layers and add more depth. But we will let them dry and do some sort of splatters, as well or some pots dry. It's a bit there's a real bit of blue there, isn't there, isn't that one? Great. I'm gonna leave that one there. I know it's not quite the same, but, you know, again, I like what's happened there. I'm not trying to do an ornithologist guide to egg identification. So if they're not exactly like a black bird's egg, then it doesn't matter so much, I don't think. I just I always want a nice color. Alright, let's put blue here. Let's try and maybe marry that one I put a little bit more. This one, so we've got the colors coming over. I try, but hardly to touch those. Green on top. Let's give up a big old rustle. And if you're not in the UK and you're not familiar with Blackbird, it's worth maybe I'll pop a little YouTube video of their song. It's quite beautiful. If somebody asked me what was my favorite bird song, it would have to be the Blackbird without a shadow of a doubt. It's just I think it takes me back to my childhood as well. My dad was quite a keen bird as it were, not that I probably realized at the time, but he was very quite knowledgeable on his birds and all the bird songs as well. So I kind of picked up that trait, I think, from him. Um Yes, and a Blackbird will always remind me of him, as well. So I've got probably fond memories because of that. But it is such a beautiful tune. And obviously, they don't sing all year round, so it does become synonymous with summer and lovely warm evenings. So they're very beautiful song. And I'll say, I'll do my best to pop up if you're not familiar. So if you're probably in the UK, you know what a Blackbird sounds like. But if you're outside the UK, you may not necessarily say, I think if you're in the States, do you have a black bird a slightly different colouring? I should have looked that up, so apologies. Alright, how are we looking? I think that one looks quite fun. Let's probably put a little bit more blue in this. Right. I get it edge. Yeah, they're fun, aren't they? Right. I might leave that one, actually. I don't think I'm gonna give that one a huff. But I'm going to put those chewed blue and the green down for you. I'm gonna hang on to my brown. The egg I'm started on with is still a little bit damp, so I'm gonna see if I can add a few of those sort of speckles. If yours is dry, don't worry. You can either wet it down and then add the speckles. But very gently, let it wet it down. Again, you don't really want to be mucking up that lovely layer you've probably put down, so I'm concentrating on doing me dots. It is if you're working like me, it's a little bit damp, be careful you don't add too much water onto this onto your page, 'cause you might end up with water marks. So make sure ideally your brush needs to be the same sort of wetness as your eggs. It sputter around. So you don't have to match the match up each egg? So just have a little random old sputter around, and you could always see what this what that produces? That's a bet spot for. So we'll get rid of that. I just gonna work my way round now, do some little splatters. And you can. It's always a little risky 'cause you can splatter the eggs, outside the eggs, but see if I can be very gentle. If you get a little bit more random this rather than trying to do dots, 'cause it's very easy when you're doing dots to to not be random. I've got a nice consistency on my brush. I don't know how I've managed not to splatter outside. Hell, no, never go. I think it will be a case of allowing them to dry, and then we have a little look once they've completely dried. Yeah, they look they look quite fun, don't they? Yes, so at this stage, I would allow it to dry, 'cause you'll most definitely be at an awkward stage where bits will be drying. You've done the splatters. If you try and add any color at this point, you'll probably find it sort of blooms mixes badly with the brown brown splatters. So I would down your brush and admire them. 15. Bonus Eggs Part Two: So how have yours dried? Have you got enough oomph in them? I quite like mine, and I must admit, I'm going to do another layer over a couple of these. I won't lie. These I'm kind of experimenting with you on this one. I haven't really painted these. Much beforehand. As you can see with a non stretched piece of paper, as well. But let's give this a go. It's a little bit of fun. I'm going to do this one mainly I well I was saying, be careful about putting too much water on when you're doing the spatters. You can see that I've got a little bit of a white area there. It's just I've added too much water. When I was doing those spatters, it pushed the blue out. So very gently. And really gently, probably more so than normal, when you're doing another second layer, 'cause I've got some nice splatters there. So I don't want to move them around too much, but we'll at just a little bit more depth and see what that produces us. It's quite fun doing this with you and not having it all planned out. I feel I'm I've done the main done the main subject. Just have a bit of fun. Right. Let's. I'm gonna put a little bit more brown, a bit more blue. Gonna go blue first. Pop a bit more blue. Again, sort of tapping. I won't do too much rustling, I don't think. So I'll go back to my sort of more common method, I suppose, of just tapping the colouring 'cause what I don't want to do really is wibble a lot of that brown a think we'd out a bit of, there's some lovely shadows in here, isn't there, as well, especially as they're sitting in the nest, but I'm not I'm not going to be doing all that. But But I'm sure I'm sure many of you will incorporate maybe this in with the Blackbird on the nest, maybe a little eggs running beside it. There's a little field guide kind of thing. I feel maybe I missed out on the trick. I should have done that. I just gonna you can also at this point, if your egg has got a little misshapen gone a little Oh, gone over my line there a little bit. I seem to have lost a bit of point here. Sometimes it can be dangerous if you're going outside your lines that you've carefully put down and you end up with a weird shape. Yeah, I quite like that. Let's do this one, I think. That's the opposite one to it. Um yes, let's do that one. Oh, actually, do what I will do. Just put that nice. Just take a beer color out. It's a lovely bit light's sitting on top of that egg. Very gently. I should have have gone over that little bit there hadn't had e that I've taken the light out of before, but Yeah, that's given me a little gleam, hasn't it? While that's still wet, A let's go over this one. Okay, see if we can even make this even bluer. So stick mainly with the blue, I think. I can actually join one of these up to its partner just so that maybe you aren't having all got little careful space between them. That'll be quite nice. Belly's bit of brown in there as well. Touch green, a little tiny bit of green. In stick to my plan, trying to make this a bit bluer. That's put the green back down. It's always same thing. The minute you think you have something nice, leave it. And actually, I probably won't take color out because I've got that nice naturally a nice lump of light there. And this is always the trouble with doing multiple layers. You quite often lose some existing light ca you've gone over with another layer. This, I thinking a little od now. Now it's beginning to dry. I'll tell you what I might do. Let's let's give it a rustle. Let's just try. You see I've got unstretched paper, which is also buckling on me, which isn't helpful. But in the spirit of just playing and experimenting, as I always go on about, let's let's give that a rustle. Why not? Let's see how that sort of changes things. 'Cause it is something I say. I always tend to drop my paint straight on the paper and leave it. I'll try to rustle things around. But maybe it's quite fun with these eggs. Or I end up with a muddy thing, one or the other. But you know what? We've had a bit of fun. You've had an experiment, and you know what works and what doesn't. So these are always always little things that are just worth doing. Sometimes you come up with something and you're like, Oh, that was a really good idea. That was useful. I remember that I, you know, in other circumstances that rustling things around actually gave me a nice bit of texture, and it may not obviously be eggs. It might be something completely different. Or vice versa, you might go, I'm never doing that again, 'cause that really didn't work and just left me something really horribly and muddy. I think I'm gonna leave that there, 'cause that's quite blended now. We'll give it a little huff with a little puff. But not going to be overly helpful that I've got this is raised. You probably see that and it's buckled either side. So my paints going to be sitting in these dips suck some of those up a little bit. I like how this one's coming out. I love this egg. I think I like all the others. This one's a little odd, I think, but we'll see how it dries and I can I might put some spatters on it when it's completely dry, see what that looks like. I'm going to down my brush, allow that to dry and then put some spatters over 16. Bonus Eggs Splatters: Well, now it's completely dry. It's a little flatted and a bit boring. And that's the case of Yeah, I've really sort of worked that. But like I said, I'm gonna put a few splatters on it, see if we can make it look a little bit a little more tictured. A little something there. I actually gonna do splats rather than dots because I know what I do. It's gonna be all too uniformed, so I could do water in there. They things coming out, are they? A bit of water? Well, too much. Let's go back to spluttering. Okey doke. I think I'm going to leave those eggs there. The only thing I probably would do, once that's completely dry is to rub any pencil marks out there. So I hope you enjoyed this little extra bonus play. I just thought it might be fun when I saw how beautiful those eggs were. And as I say, it's quite nice to just do something unstructured that I haven't sort of practiced a lot beforehand and just go with the flow with it. So, again, if you've done these little eggs, I would love to see them, because I think they're quite cool, and I like to see if you've done a different bird or even if you've done the Blackbird and decided you found some other really pretty looking eggs. I just love to see whatever you produce. So yes, please do share. And thank you for joining me for this little little bonus lesson. 17. Final Thoughts: I hope you enjoy painting the nesting bird. And I wonder, did you paint another bird? How did the free flow elements go? Remember to be bold with your paint and water and just allow. Did you enjoy painting that little black wood with those lovely soft layers? Remember to pay extra detail to that eye and beak. Did you have a go at painting those eggs? Fun, aren't they? And I'd love to see what you've created. So don't forget to add your work to the projects page. As I always say, it's worth stepping away, coming back and looking at your painting with a fresh pair of eyes. This simple act still amazes me. So we look forward to seeing you in the next class.