If you like painting animals, you might also like this acrylic painting tutorial that shows how to paint a realistic bunny on canvas or this tutorial showing how to paint a fox.
How to Paint a Humming Bird at Zinnia in Acrylic
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Silver Level or Higher Class
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Class Description
Humming Birds are among the smallest and most fascinating of all the birds. Their name stems from the fact that they beat their wings about 80 times per second – hence the humming sound – amazing amount of energy being expended.
In this lesson you will learn:
1 How to simplify the background
2 How to block in the colors
3 How to imitate the detail of the feathers
4 and more .
Latest Reviews
Wonderful Class thank you Dennis. Gives great basics how to paint a Hummingbird I learned a lot
Mireille Fournier
Unlock the Follow Along Class HERE
Get Started Painting a Bird in Flight
1. start with your pattern, transfer it to your surface with transfer paper (not carbon paper).
2. Double load your #12 flat or bright brush with Night Sky and Wicker white.
Need more info on Basics of painting like loading and strokes? Go here!
Head & Wings
3. Make an upside down U stroke to make the top of the birds head. (Ignore the line down the middle, I used that to draw the bird)
4. Re load your brush and come back to do the stroke on the wings. First one side then the other.
Paint Body & Tail
5. Reload the brush, stroke on the body following your pattern lines. First one side then the other.
6. Start at the bottom center of the tail and start laying in short choppy strokes for the tail feathers. Layer your strokes as you ascend to where the body meets the tail.
I got this tail a little wide once I was done adding the feathers but it still works. You can adjust to your liking.
step 2: set up your work space
If you have an easel, that’s fabulous. If not, place your canvas on a table. If working on a table, it’s helpful to insert pushpins on the back side of your canvas in each corner. That will raise your canvas up off your work surface so that you can easily paint the sides (especially helpful if you have a gallery wrap canvas).
step 3: choose non-toxic, cruelty-free supplies
Opt for painting supplies that do not harm animals or yourself in the process of creating your beautiful bird art. For brushes, synthetic brands will work well for applying both oil and acrylic. You can clean your brushes afterwards with a good artist soap like this or this one.
When working with oil paint, skip the toxic chemical solvents and go with safer alternatives that work just as well. Instead of turpentine, use baby oil! Baby oil is basically just mineral oil, and it works amazingly well for rinsing brushes used for oil paint (it’s the equivalent of water for acrylic). It’s also inexpensive (a generic brand is fine) and easy to find at practically any store in the baby section. Fill a small jar with a few inches of baby oil, and rinse your oil brushes in it when switching between colors, or when switching between one brush and another.
For creating glazes and speeding up the drying time of oil paint, avoid toxic solvents like Liquin that are dangerous to breathe, and other alkyd products that are flammable, and go with a non-toxic, non-flammable, soap-and-water-cleanup glaze like this one. For acrylic paint, this Golden glazing liquid works incredibly well for slowing the drying time of acrylics and making transparent washes and glazes.
Choose safe alternatives to colors that are known to be carcinogenic. Example—choose “cadmium free” yellows and reds instead of their cadmium containing counterparts.
Wear gloves—-not only to protect your manicure, but to protect your skin from absorbing any unnecessary chemicals as you paint.
step 4: paint your masterpiece!
Watch the video to see the process of how to paint a bird on a branch using both acrylic and oil paint.
- If your canvas feels rough after applying the first layer of acrylic, use a 220 grit sandpaper to sand the surface to make it smooth before applying additional paint layers.
- To keep your oil paint from drying out on your palette when you are not using it, store it in your freezer.
- Take a break from painting every half hour or hour. Step back and look at your canvas from a distance and view it from different perspectives.
- Use watercolor pencils to lightly trace your design on to your canvas. The watercolor pencil lines will dissolve when the wet paint is applied on top, leaving no trace of your guidelines. (Draw with the same color watercolor pencil as the color of paint that you plan to use–if you are planning to paint a bluebird, use a blue watercolor pencil to trace the outline. If you are painting a sparrow, use gray or brown watercolor pencils.)
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