Drawing the subject in pencil first will help you to paint it. A drawing is like the framework of a building and the painting is like the cladding. I would suggest that developing drawing ability is actually more important than painting in many ways.
25 Easy Watercolor Bird Painting Ideas
Nature has always been an inspiration for artists and one favorite subject to paint is birds. Painting birds in watercolor is fun, relaxing, and rewarding.
If you’re in need of bird paintings to inspire you, these watercolor color bird painting ideas to help you create your own beautiful art. I’m showcasing penguin paintings, chicken paintings, cardinal paintings, sparrow paintings, and more.
Worksheets I Use to Practice Watercolor: Watercolor Success in 4 Steps: This book features 150 easy watercolor painting projects, including flowers, fruits and veggies, animals, and more.
Flying Blue Bird
Create a stunning painting of a small blue bird flying through the sky. Use a blue and green gradient for its wings to help emphasize the feeling of movement in the painting.
Rooster Side View
Showcase the beauty of a rooster with a side-view painting. If you’re looking for a creative and colorful painting, this one is sure to fit the bill.
Materials List
No. 2 Squirrel Hair Mop Brush Buy from Amazon
Synthetic Squirrel Flat Brush Buy From Amazon
Princeton Neptune Synthetic Squirrel Round Brush Buy From Amazon
Da Vinci No.4 Petit Gris Round Mop brush Buy From Amazon
Winsor & Newton Cotman 111 Round No.3 Buy From Amazon
Arches Watercolor Paper Block, Cold Press, 9″ x 12″, 140 pound Buy from Amazon
Miscellaneous
Easy release painters masking tape Buy from Amazon
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What Are “Loose” Watercolors?
A loose watercolor painting is one that is painted quickly and freely with lively brush strokes. In a loose paintings, the aim is to try and capture the essence of a subject in broad spontaneous strokes, as opposed to a slow painstaking photographic detailed rendering.
Successful loose watercolor paintings have an appealing freshness and energy about them that is particularly suited to this medium.
How to Paint Colorful Watercolor Birds
Here’s a quick and easy relaxation exercise to warm you up to painting again after an exhausting Christmas break! Two adorable little birds waiting to adorn someone’s birthday card!
My Materials
I decided to paint these little cuties on a piece of Bockingford 140lb watercolor paper. Because I don’t use a lot of water for this style of painting, I didn’t need to stretch or even tape down the edges of the paper, but just went ahead and painted directly on to the paper after doing the sketch.
For a good quality, reasonably priced paper you can’t do much better than Bockingford. If you are based in the UK you can buy it from Jacksons here:
It’s available in white and also in pale tints, which is very unique among watercolor paper manufacturers.
If you are based in the States you can also buy from Jacksons and their shipping is very reasonable.
My Paints
For this painting I used traditional watercolors by Winsor and Newton. The colors I used are: Cobalt Blue , Winsor Violet, Quinacridone Gold , Sap Green and Alizarin Crimson . I prefer to use tubes, which I squeeze out into little dishes which I use as palettes, or sometimes I use pan paints from my set, depending on my mood!
For this painting I used a No. 7 round synthetic brush. You can use any of many brands for this undemanding painting. I can recommend the beginners set by ZenArt for anyone wishing to buy a starter set.
If you’re still learning how to draw birds, please feel free to download my sketch of this painting of How to Paint Cute and Colorful Watercolor Birds. There is no charge for these downloads although we do appreciate a small donation in our PayPal tip jar if you feel you would like to support the channel. Just go here How to Paint Cute and Colorful Watercolor Birds for your download.
Here is the video for this tutorial:
