Quick Tips for painting birds

Winter has come here in Germany, and as the leaves have disappeared and the snow is falling, I can do one of my favorite activities again: watching and sketching birds from the window.

I find the colder months are a great time to watch birds, they are more visible in nature, and they tend to gather around feeders. Over the years I’ve watched many dramatic and endearing scenes, and I definitely consider the family of sparrows that live in the bush near my window a part of the neighborhood. A loud, chirpy part of the neighborhood.

And of course, my sketchbook is never far away. I still try to sketch birds from life every year, although it’s an ongoing struggle – they are just so fast and this kind of sketching needs practice. I keep trying though, and it’s fun. And when I want to observe their feather patterns and colors a bit closer, I rely on photos that I take.

And this is what I did for this video, in which I sketch a blue tit and a great tit, both very active and cute birds I see almost each day around here.
I’ll share a few helpful tips for sketching birds in watercolor, such as adding in dark contrasts right from the beginning – this helps me to see where I need to put the dark and light areas and minimizes the amount of layers I need to build up.

I also keep the sketches true to my approach of loose but precise watercolors: I have a fairly precise drawing to which I just loosely add watercolor on top. I add details around the focal areas like the face. This keeps the sketches very fresh and vibrant.

Here’s the video version of this post:

Tips for painting birds in watercolor

Watch this video on YouTube.

I hope you’ll enjoy the video and the tips for bird sketching – do you watch or sketch birds in winter, too? I always love seeing the handsome colorful North American birds that you send me.