For this small watercolor I wanted to showcase and demonstrate my love of our beautiful Australian native birds in a setting where a male superb fairy-wren has heralded the arrival of spring. Moulting from his drab brown winter plumage into his resplendent breeding plumage of sky blue and black, an added sprig of new growth adds a touch of green for the theme of spring.

Pandanus Party (Chestnut-breasted Mannikins), watercolor, 8¼ x 10½" (21 x 27 cm)

 

As a watercolor artist who regularly takes over 100 hours to finish a painting, I’m enjoying creating a series of smaller works. Although these take less time than larger works, there is an inherent challenge to nevertheless produce work that still contains all the standard principles of larger works, such as composition, tonal values and anatomical correctness. Superb fairy-wrens are tiny birds, which suits a small format beautifully. 

Spangled (Spotted Pardalotes), watercolor, 14 x 22¾" (36 x 58 cm)

 

Birds are subjects that rarely sit still for long, so it’s imperative to gather my own good reference material. I’ve always enjoyed taking my own photographs and have recently purchased a 50MP professional camera. What a difference! Even birds photographed far away and that appear small in the photograph can be deep cropped while still retaining enough detail for use. While walking through a local nature reserve, I took as many photos of the wrens as I could, as well as general habitat photos and surroundings.

The Banquet (New Holland Honeyeater), watercolor, 9¾ x 13" (25 x 33 cm)

 

It’s rare to take a photo that is perfect to copy verbatim. I feel that combining a few photos gives me the freedom to alter elements and composition, making the work truly individual. For this painting, I used four individual photos containing the best elements that will be selected for the final composition. 

From here on, I load the photos into a photo editing program and play around with ideas and compositions. I loved the way this wren was suspended head downwards, just about to pounce off the branch. From here on, it’s a straightforward process of drawing, transferring to the board, mask cutting, airbrushing and finally painting. Further details of these processes will be explained in the following demonstration.  

My Art in the Making Spring Has Sprung (Superb Fairy-wren)

 

Reference Photos

 

Stage 1  Rough Sketches

My mobile phone with the S Pen is the perfect small canvas for quick ideas. Looking at the photos on my laptop, I can quickly sketch ideas onto the phone screen with the S Pen. In this instance, I had a strong idea of what the composition was going to be when selecting the best photos to work from, so only a few sketches were needed. 

 

Stage 2  Photo Mock-up

I certainly won’t win any awards for photo editing, but that’s perfectly fine. All I’m interested in at this stage is the composition of the elements. I’ve used the “rule of thirds” to place the wren’s head two thirds from the top edge and one third from the left edge. The wren was sitting on a branch I thought was a little thin in width, so I etched him out and placed him on a larger branch with the greenery. The foreground sprig of green is superimposed from another reference photo. The beauty of using a photo editing program is that size changes, angles, transparency and position are very easy to change. I always remember to save and name each new compositional idea as a separate file as on many occasions it’s a “toss up” between compositional ideas.

 

Stage 3  Masking

The wren has been transferred to the museum board. Museum board has a very delicate surface and will delaminate easily if pencil lines are rubbed out too often. The transfer process leaves a rather inaccurate mark, so, using a kneaded eraser, I carefully lift the traced lines and redraw using a .02mm mechanical pencil. Although I’m really drawing the image twice, I can correct small errors I missed in the initial drawing stage. Watercolor is non-correcting and very unforgiving, so it’s imperative to get this stage correct. Once the pencil outline is completed, a sheet of frisket masking film is carefully laid over the entire surface. Using a sharp size 11 scalpel, the mask is cut out, leaving the negative spaces ready for airbrushing. 

 

Stage 4  Airbrushing Finished

Wanting to keep the background in warmer colors, I’ve airbrushed various mixes of liquid acrylic in white, yellow medium azo, pale gray, transparent raw umber, transparent burnt umber and sepia. These colors are applied from lightest to darkest value, blending on the board. I considered airbrushing in shades of green but decided to use warmer browns to enhance the blue plumage of the wren. Once airbrushing is completed, the masking film is carefully removed using the tip of a scalpel. There are two choices when airbrushing: I use either liquid acrylic or liquid watercolor. Both mediums have their advantages and disadvantages. Liquid acrylic clogs the airbrush more readily, but you are left with a more durable, waterproof surface, ideal for brushwork over the top. Liquid watercolor sprays beautifully but is prone to water and splash marks. I chose to use liquid acrylic because there wasn’t a large surface to cover.

 

Stage 5  Continuing to Paint

He’s starting to come to life already! Being right-handed, I usually work from left to right. Sections of the plant that overlap the branch and the lower portion of the bird have been masked with liquid mask. This must be applied in as thin a layer as possible, as removal of thick layers will tear the surface. Now the watercolor can be applied. Using my favorite muted gray mix of cerulean and cadmium red, the dead branch is worked using both 00 and 000 size brushes. I’ll employ a range of grays and browns to build up depth and form, with sepia, Van Dyke brown and jet black gouache the predominant shadow colors. The plants are created with primarily sap green, cadmium lemon, chromium oxide green and perylene green for the darkest shadows.

 

Stage 6  Further Development

For the wren’s blue cap, cheek patches and mantle, I’ve used mainly manganese blue hue. This is a lovely transparent blue. Feather details and moulding are done with Winsor blue (green shade). I’m not afraid to use black! It adds “oomph” to my work. However, my application of black is tempered with other colors. For the black back of the wren, I’ve painted over the initial black with highlights consisting of a mix of white gouache and ultramarine blue to suggest the light hitting the feathers. The tail is a primarily ultramarine, indanthrene and Payne’s gray finished with small white gouache highlights.

 

Stage 7  Finished Artwork

Spring Has Sprung (Superb Fairy-wren), watercolor, gouache and liquid acrylic on museum board, 10½ x 7½” (27 x 19 cm)