Transcripts
1. Introduction: Today we're going to learn to painting hummingbirds
and watercolor. I hope you enjoy this. It's a fairly simple little
guy. We're going to paint. I actually took the reference
photos from right here. It's always good to
observe your bird first. But if you can't, I do supply reference photos and a
sketch with this class.
2. Supplies for this Class: I hope you're ready to
paint your hummingbird. We are going to
use a few brushes. The brand of the brushes
doesn't really matter. What you need is a
small, fine brush, maybe a round or flat,
medium-sized brush. And I also like to use a
little round pointed brush. This one's a ten, you may not need that big. This is medium flat brush. This one is a triple five. We could probably get away with. This is a small
round detail brush. You could probably
get away with larger. But the hummingbird
I'm painting for me today is a little
on the small side. And I prefer to use
mostly these brushes. I even have a small rigger
brush that I'm using. These brands. Do not know what brand this is. It was inexpensive at
a local hobby store, but just small round
brushes will work. You do not need anything
special for this. For, you'll need
a paint palette. On your paint palette, you'll need a set of paints. Now I have a class for
this, if you're interested, here, for you to see on
how I created this one, basically you need just
three or four blues, three or four reds, a couple of browns, and three or four yellows. Got my color pointing
mixed up here. And some white watercolor. Why not go wash
wipe for this one? And that will get you through. Use student grade or
professional-grade watercolors. Not at your box stores. The cheap watercolors, they
will not work very well. You will need a glass with
some water to dip your brush. A cloth or paper towel of some sort for drying
your brush and dabbing. That's pretty much
it. Watercolor paper. You will need watercolor paper. For the watercolor paper, I prefer to use a high-quality 100%
cotton watercolor paper. That way. It works very different
than your pulp paper. Pulp paper does not take the layers for
watercolor very well. And nor does it
take other things that we do with
watercolor very well. If you're gonna splurge, splurge on the watercolor paper. I prefer Arches
watercolor paper. Stonehenge by Legion also
worked well for this. If you're in Europe, are around Saunders,
Waterford is great. What's another one? Fabriano, I think that's the name of it. Those work also. Just make sure it's archival. I use hot press white. You can use cream if you prefer. I prefer the white for this one. I'm hot press. If you use cold press, you will be able to
paint your hummingbird, but it will not turn out exactly
like this because I used the hot press which doesn't have the little ridges
in it, the texture. I'm going to see you
in the next video. We're going to start
painting our hummingbird. Be sure to pull out the
reference photo and the preliminary
sketch that I have attached to this class. Download it. You can
either trace or draw your own hummingbird and pain
along. See you in a few.
3. Laying the Foundation of Watercolor: If you're ready
to get started on this little ruby
throat it hummingbird. This is a juvenile. So I'm thinking it's
gonna be a male based on a couple of red and dark
specks in its neck. But at the moment it's a juvenile and it's hard
to tell if it's male or female mixing a little
bit of the browns. So whatever neutral
browns you have, I'm adding in some
blue and red here. Also fall out there, but that's just a mixture
of red and blue to create sort of a almost black. And I'm going to map out my hummingbird here
with a very fine brush. I believe this one's a triple or quadruple
0. I'm not sure. It's a very fine tip brush. Just so that I can map
out the fine lines. And the dark spots
on my hummingbird. Make us just a
little bit darker. To create dark, you add
a little more blue. In this case, this
particular set of watercolors
came with a black, so I added a drop
of black in it. Don't want to put
too much of that in there or your black
will be flat. You want to make sure you
got plenty of the reds and blues and browns in there. To bring this out. I'm just, I don't want to draw the feathers in this part because the
hummingbird is flying. So I'm just giving a
hint of the overlap and the feathers so that it's
not fully detailed there. I want it to be a
little fuzzy to indicate the hummingbird
is fluorine. As it dives in and out of
this little hibiscus flower. This will dry lighter
and we will go back and add more layers on it to
darken it up as we go along. Let's see here. Notice I'm just kinda whispering
it when I do this. And I'm not bringing the line over all the way back
on these feathers. The dark areas are
just the overlap of the feathers causing
the shadows. Define the eye. Now the face is where we want
the most detail. Because this is where we
want the focus to be when someone looks at
our hummingbird. I have somewhat detailed out the flowers
in this painting, but my main focal point is
this little hummingbirds. So the most detail we'll go into the facial features and the beak of
this hummingbird. I will have some detail
in the tail and the body. And of course we will
have blurred illusion of detail in the wings because we want to
signify movement. Now, what I've done here is
just mix some of my greens. This palette has green. I prefer most of the time. With my other, this
is whole buying my Winsor Newton set
is my travel set, and I do not have greens in it. I mixed those by just various little puddles of blue and yellow to
different degrees. Different blues and
different yellows. You don't want a solid green. These are dark because I'm doing the indicating the
underlying or the feathers here, signifying the tail here, this just the foundation
layer on this hummingbird. Every watercolor painting goes through an ugly duckling stage. As you'll see this
humming right now, I'm in bird right now, isn't the ugly duckling stage. And that usually
does not start going away and take it about seventy-five percent
finished with the painting. Because when you're
seventy-five percent finished with the painting, trying to get these
little details and the tail here and the
roundness of the tail. But as anyhow, 75% of
the painting is getting, mapping out your subject, getting paint on the paper, and building up the layers. To create a more realistic
image requires many layers. So it will go through a
serious, ugly duckling face. I encourage you not to
give up. Keep going. I'm just putting in some
of the underlying colors. I'm going to use. Some people prefer
to use the white of the paper in my
feathers and fur. I always prefer to use the texture of either white
gouache or white watercolor. In this case, is going
to be whitewater color. Any white you see me putting on it here is whitewater color. But I'm just doing the
undertones right now. Because the chest
of the hummingbird, even though it's
primarily white, is actually a variation
of shadows, of blues. In green shadow. Shadows bouncing off whatever
colors that are around it, bouncing off into the shadows
and reflecting the light. So it's not a true white. Getting a little more
around the head here. Greens, or like I said, just mix various blues and
various yellows to come up with several
different puddles of green because you don't
want a solid color here. And you can use the
reference image to match your greens
as you're mixing it. If you'd like a class on mixing greens and a class
on mixing blacks. I'd be happy to do that. Just let me know that
there's interest in that. Starting to hint
at the beak here. That don't want to get
to harden edge on this big because I want it to round. And also even though it
looks like a straight line, there is a bottom part of the beak and I
taught part of the beak where the hummingbird opens his little beak and
sticks his tongue out. So I do want to, for, as we go along further indicate
that on this painting, I'm gonna let you continue watching as the details
keep going here. Right now, it's just the feet. I'm using the dark
color mixtures. If you have any
trouble wanting to know the exact colors I've used, I always include a
reference photo with labels of the paints and
their names that I'm using. You can just match those up
with what you see me dipping.
4. Layering Watercolor: Okay, I've turned my
hummingbirds sideways here a little bit to get him
closer to me for painting. Makes it a little easier
for you to see two. Sometimes also, it's good to turn your subject if you're
having trouble painting. This will allow me to get the feathers easily in
the proper direction. I'm working again
with the grains. You see me using a little of the I think that's permanent. One of the yellows, probably yellow ocher or
something similar. It's again listed in the
downloads that go with this. I include my watercolor palette for you to see just how those, but I'm using various grains. Most of the time
when I use greens, I do not use the
greens on the palette. I will use blues and yellows and mix them to different degrees
to get migraines. But I'm working on a new
palette right now. Hold on. A little dark to signify where that wing is
in the shadows. I'm working with a new
palette right now, Holbein, and I'm just trying
out all the various colors. So you will see me using
the grains and this one, when I'm out in the field, I use a very basic palette, just blues, yellows, and reds. And I use those to mix
everything else I need. I have a class on that
if you'd like to look at it. Let's see. I don't wanna do
the green solid. I want to signify
some shadow here. Also the green on the
back of the hummingbird. As beautiful as it is. It is not a solid green, so I have quite a
few little dots there of small mixtures
of various colors, of green, hues of green. And that's helping me come up with what I need in my
painting quickly here. Now this is just a little bit of my black mixed try mixed. In the first part. I am trying to
make sure I darken up just a small line on it, also around the eye to show the separation and the lower
beak and the upper beak. This little guy is a juveniles. Juveniles have the
white fluffy neck, much like the females. I think this might be a male juvenile because I see a few flux if read
starting to poke through for the redneck, but they're very faint. So I'm only going to put them in as specs towards the end. Define this wing a little bit. I do not want detail
in this wing. I want to signify movement. I'm using longer strokes, less detailed strokes
with more water mixed in. Adding more water
gives me more fluid. Watercolor to paint with and helps me create the
movement of these wings. I've used the dark
brown or black mixture to kind of show the overlap
of the feathers there. I will come back in
a little while with some white watercolor to kind of brush over this to give it a little very light
feathery look on the wings. Just defining this out. Now when you're
painting, you do really do not want to draw lines. You want to paint up to
the edge of something. In short spurts, especially when you're dealing
with fur and feathers. Because there are no
really straight lines with fur and feathers. Just wanted to give
the idea of them. I'll give it a little
more realistic look. Once you start drawing
the lines with the paint. I'm using white
here, by the way, to kind of bring out
some of that neck. This is whitewater
color, not white quash. I'm using the white watercolor to sort of get a
feathery texture. You can use the
white of the paper. It's just my technique to
use the white watercolor. I like the way it blends and sort of gives an even look and even texture with
the rest of the bird. It does add a little more time than leaving the
white of the paper to your painting
process because it will add layers to your process. That's the way I like to
do it the same way I did the flowers below to get
the texture in them. I didn't want flat
white flowers, and I wanted the ability to show more light and brighter white than I would
have y to this paper. That's in another class. Working on the tail here. Having ruby throat
it hummingbirds have very distinct white tips
on their tail feathers. And I want to make
sure this tail appears rounded with those white tips. So I'll have to go back and add a lot more shadow in there to indicate the randomness
of this tail as it's flying. Now as I get closer
to the flower, the hummingbird will
actually tuck its tail. If you see that any reference photos that
you choose to paint, It's kind of an adorable pose. I have some this
reference photos, one of my favorite. I love the expression
on this bird. Wings. I'm not being precise again. I'm trying to give it
that look of fluttering. So you want some
transparency in here. Yet the same time you do want to see the overlap with the wings, but you do not want hard
detailed edges to be soft and fluttering to show that the bird is flying,
not standing still.
5. Layering to Create Texture and Shape - Part 1: Okay, we are about 50, 60% finished with
our hummingbird. You're starting to
see shape and shadow. We need to begin slowly working dryer with our
paint, less water. Highlighting the details. Using just a mixture
of blues and yellows. I've made a little puddles of different mixes of blues and yellows to give
various greens. And I'm just dabbling the
men to signify feathers. Now the hummingbird feathers
are very precise feathers. They reflect a lot of light, but I just want to give the illusion of that
with little dabs here. And each one is painted in the direction that the feather would be coming out of the bird. The reason for that is to give it that little
bit of perspective. It needs to show the individual perspective
on the each feather, even though overall you
probably won't see them. Trying to give a little
roundness to the tail here. Washing and drying my brush off. I'm just going
through and mixing my browns and blues and a touch of red to get
different blacks and browns. So that I don't
have a flat black. I do not want the tail and the black parts of the
bird to be flat. That's what would
happen if I used the black that came with
my watercolor set? Now if that's the look
you're going for, that's not a problem. But in this case it's not. I need shadows and need. When you look at a hummingbird, it's not straight black. The way the light reflects might give it red and parts might give it purple or blue hues
in parts of the tail. And that will suddenly
come out if you use mixtures of black. Now you also rarely see me mix a huge portion of black or any color I'm using
all at one time. Because I liked the variance of it being a little
different each time I mix it. So I just mix a little bit. Use it up, I know
which colors I used. Just dabble it in
until I get one that suits where I want. And by the time I'm done, I have various shades
of black all over my palette as well, just like the grains over
there that you're looking at. And the yellows and the
browns you're looking at. Okay. We're just defining up the edges on the
tail feathers here. I do want a little
more definition. I also want a little more detail because the tail is rounded. And with that stark white
against the dark color, I need a little bit more
detail to show that. I'm just fiddling with it. Just looked to reference photo. After awhile, I tend to put my reference photo
up and look at the bird that I'm painting. And it will show me what just by looking at it without
the reference photo. Michelle, me, I need
some shadows here. Might need a little
more definition here I start defining the bird
without the reference photo. I'm trying to match it
exactly because my goal is not an exact match
to the reference photo. My goal is to capture
the essence and the character of the
bird, the personality. Reference photos just because I want you to be able
to identify it. So I want to get close to what a juvenile ruby throat at
hummingbird looks like. You're still working
with the blacks here. I'm going to add a
little more red and now Coming up on the edges, It's still a black, but it has more red in
it than the other did. And that's going to give
it also a brand issue. Also the eyes, when
you're painting the eyes, the way to get them
more realistic is not to paint solid black, to paint various blacks. And with each layer, I'm actually adding
less and less because there's really only a few of
your darkest spots in that. I don't forget to keep the
catch lights in there too. The sun does pick up in
the hummingbird sky. Starting to get more real here. Starting to look
like a hummingbird. Or come to finding
the neck here, I would like a little
more roundness, little more indentation
between the neck and the body. I'm doing that with color. Looking at the shadows. Where would the shadow
be with the sun coming off up behind it there. Yet there's also light reflecting off those
white flowers. You have to remember that it's not as bright as the
light coming off the sun. I use white watercolor
to also enhance. Keep in mind, white
watercolor is translucent, so you're not just
going to want to paint over dark and expect
it to show up white. You need to leave the white
of the paper for that. Like I did with the flowers
painted with a lot of white, but I did it over the white of the paper, creating texture. Because the white watercolor
is semi-transparent, you're going to be able
to see through it. It's not fully transparent. Now there's always a ring
around the eye, a little ring. That's a bit much. I
will go back in a minute and use a little black
to bring it down. Or dark green. Starting to see the
definition in the eye. And around the neck. Now, white watercolor
will go on brighter and will dry a little more translucent that
it's looking right now. To keep that in mind
when you're painting because it may
require another coder to define the wing
a little bit here. Just a few highlights
to bring that out. And as this dries, they
will be very subtle. They won't be so
bright. Probably going to go a little overboard
here with them. And then I will
go back over with a little darker
watercolor spots. The further a
painting goes along. And then more detailed I get, I use less water and more
paint than the beginning. I do a lot more water
and less paint. So I can get it more fluid. And that gives me also areas that I want
to be more fluid. I just do not bring in the
detail like the wings. I will not be bringing in as much detail as I do the
body even though I started out painting them very similar with more wet watercolor,
more water in it.
6. Layering to Create Texture and Shape - Part 2: Starting to look like we're
flying to the flower, then it keep my hand
this way. Long payment. If you want to
learn how to paint backgrounds and the flowers, there are other classes I
teach that do that here. This class is just for
this little hummingbird. Trying to give the
illusion of the wings. The feathers. Don't want to kill
the movement here. Using a longer, wider strokes. This will dry with the under color coming
through a little more than you see right here. Keep that in mind
when you're painting. But a son back then on
the back of his neck, I need to highlight
coming around the wing. They're creating layers and depth here. Smoothing it out here
because I don't want any harsh lines on
these wings that move. Movement does not go well with harsh lines and fine details. So that part needs to
show that this tail, on the other hand, hummingbirds have a way of
flapping their wings and keeping their body fairly
still when they're hovering. This tail is not moving
like the wings are, neither is his body
or head or beak. So I can include
the detail there. If you've ever sat and
watched a hummingbird, heading highlights on the
back where the sun is showing shining illusion
of feathers here. I'm using my finger because
when the feather goes into the body and I've been
to the other feathers, it kind of fades off. And I discovered that if I just tap it with
my finger on the tips, then it tends to blend
it in just perfect. She should use a
little paper towel or something too, if you prefer. The new finger. Hope you're enjoying
this tutorial, I'm defining the tail here. They ended side of the tail
will stay darker black. The upper side, we have the sun in various
degrees shining on it. We want to keep the roundness of the tail because the tail does curve when they
start hovering. And then as they get
closer to the flower, he will that little
tail in as he lands. It's cute to watch them do that. Work on the feet here and the
little under body feathers. We have shadows. I always have a little fluff
under their tail there. Make sure I put it in there. I'm just going back and
forth between the touches. A brown added a touch
of red in the brown, and a little black and
they're a little blue. Just to get varying
degrees of color. You do not want solid colors. Not when you're trying to get a more realistic look
in your painting. I want to keep this
little bird painterly, but at the same time, I would like the
illusion of realism. Detail. Lucky there were
starting to form. Getting very close to
being finished here. The rest of this
is just details, little bitty tidbits
here and there. Fine-tuning. Looking. At this point, I'm not even looking
at my reference photo. I know what the
hummingbird looks like. I want to make sure I've got the form and the shadows right. And I tend to have
problems doing that when I'm staring
at the reference photo. So I've put the
reference photo away. Feel free to look at it and keep painting if
that works for you. For me, I tend to get a little more real with the shadows
and the highlights. If I put the photo away, start going with what I know to be true for shadows
and highlights. Just mixing a little
bit here while I'm waiting for what
I've done to dry. Mixing up more black. Mixing various shades
of black with green. Kinda darken. Don't want too much though. We're just working
in some details. I want people to know this is a juvenile or be
thrown it hummingbird. And for a burden to know
that they're going to need to see the details
that identify this bird. So they know which
hummingbird it is. A little more green. Kinda lost my green up here. That's at all more. They actually do get
quite bright in the sun. Hope you're enjoying
this tutorial. I hope you're enjoying
this little bird. Love to see the birds
that you paint. Be sure and share them in
the project section of the class or on social media and tag me and
let me know you're there. This is just nitpicking
at this point. Going back, little
highlights. Monarchs. Not quite happy with the
way this beak is going. I'd like a little more
in the head here to. Here we go. Let's change the perspective on
the head a little bit to match the body.
7. Painting the Illusion of Details: Adding that little
dark on the top helped me turn the head just a little bit towards that flower. Give it a little more highlight. Now again, this will dry. Not near as bright as it is. When you put it on wet. That's just the nature
of whitewater code. Here. We have a hummingbird. Don't want any
harsh in this area. Use my finger and just dab it. You do not have to do that
if you do not want to. It's just a habit I
picked up along the way. Some say it's a bad habit. Others don't. Just whatever makes it for you. Beginning to see the texture
and the feathers here. The details are popping out. Let me get the little fluff
under the back-end of the tail. Fluff here. There's also going
to be a lot of fluff tenor and the fee. If you look at hummingbirds, it's sort of an,
a pattern blind. Work on this tail. A little more, little
more definition here. Definitely need a few
more graded highlights as we go over the
rounded portion of the back here in the tail. We don't want our
back looking flat. And we need to make
sure that the sun is shining from above
and behind it. Should say behind
it to the left. Just going over the whites here. And damping between
whites and darks. I'm just using the
darks I mixed earlier. I have quite a variety of them there on my palette
to just start dabbing and use
instinct to obtain it. I'm just mixing a little
more red and blue. Here. The touchy yellow to get some
dark shades into my green. And they'd like more lights and darks here on the
back to give it a more rounded backside. More definition. Creating a little
more roundness here by adding darks and lights. I'm always painting in the
direction of the feathers, even if it's a shadow, I'm painting in the
direction of the feathers. Darker. It gets the tinier the spots are getting
that I'm using it. I'm also using much less
water, much more paint. These details. I don't want them
running and eat them exactly where I want them. I just keep layering on more details over
the old details. I'll work on a different part of the bird for a minute while the other details dry and
just go back over them again. Now, right at the
top of this wing, I do need a hard line. Not a soft line. Luck the rest of the wing signify that that's I'm not
sure what you call that. The bone or whatever it is. It goes through the feather, the top of the wing there. Before you get to
the longer feather. Really starting to bring
out the tonal value. So the dark right now, making sure that my
darkest darks are dark, my lightest lights are light. Then all my mid
tones go together. Now if you're having trouble
with your mid tones, a cure for that is to whatever
your primary colors here, I would probably do a green
or blue or bluish green, very light in the water. And I will do a water wash to bring the tonal
value altogether. But at this point it
seems to be working in. I don't need to do that. We're just about finished here. I'm just being a little
fussy with some edges. We won't be done. Beautiful hummingbird, I'd love to see yours when it's finished.
8. Conclusion: I hope you had fun. I enjoyed the painting that I love painting in watercolor. If you would like more
classes available in painting in watercolor or
nature journaling, or even creating
your own sketchbook. I have a list on my website of all the classes I offer
and where to find them. Join easily.com, just my name associated
with this class.com. So I hopefully see you
again in the future. Don't forget to share what you've learned and your images. I love to see the progress
you make over time. Share it. Let me see what you've done.
Joy Neasley, Watercolor Wildlife Artist
