Painting Birds in Watercolour by Liz Chaderton

Author:Liz Chaderton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Crowood Press

Adding washes of colour is rapid once the ink is dry.

Crackle paste and gold leaf echoed the water ripples and scaley legs.

The final noble heron, 50 × 100cm.

I used Pebeo Studio crackle modelling paste on this occasion, though I have found DecoArt and Golden crackle pastes to be reliable. This is a two-part process, so just follow the instructions and if in doubt test before using on your painting. The cracks can be encouraged using a hot hair dryer but wait until it is fully cured before moving on. I then tinted acrylic gold size with Phthalo Blue. I knew this would show through where the cracks were and wanted it to hint at the aquatic habitat. The size was applied around the heron and worked into the cracks. Most edges were quite smooth, but in places I broke them up to try and soften. The downside of this technique is that the image can look very cut out so breaking up edges is important. I dropped the size in a few areas of the bird to invite the gold into the image. These drops will take a while to dry as they are thick.

Once the size had dried to tack (slightly sticky but not wet), the imitation gold leaf was applied, overlapping sheets a tiny bit. Given that the background was very textured, this did not have to be done with great precision. Excess was simply brushed away with a soft brush. The surface needed to be sealed with either a spray or brush-on varnish, as the copper in the imitation leaf would tarnish over time. A gloss finish was used, so as not to dull the golden shine.

STUDY

PENGUIN

Penguins are surprisingly tricky birds to paint without them looking like extras from a cartoon, but having visited a king penguin colony, I am hooked on these lovely birds. Sure, they are ungainly out of the water, but under the water just watch them go!

My plan was to paint two penguins huddled together and to make their white tummies merge. I selected Transparent Grey, Phthalo Blue, Quinacridone Sienna, Gamboge and used a piece of Not/Cold press paper 39 × 39cm.

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