Steps of Watercolor Painting: Parakeets in Watercolor

Are you getting tired of bird paintings yet?  I used to have parakeets growing up.  I had a yellowish-greenish one and my brother had a blue one like this picture.  Don't worry, I started a few other things this week so I'll have different types of artwork to show you soon.  Would you like to see the steps I take to add layers to my watercolor paintings?  I took photographs of this parakeet painting as I added different washes of paint and fine details.

Here is the finished painting:

Here are the progression photos.  I start with a sketch from some reference photos.  Then lay down light washes of color.

Add more light washes of colors in different shades.  I use a wet paper towel to dab up areas that may have gotten too dark.

Here I have added more texture and details. The fan brush is great to use for texture and so are these wisp brushes(these aren't the exact brand that I have but they look like this) .   I use a teeny tiny brush for details.

I ended up going back into the birds with white acrylic paint because I wanted stronger highlights.

 

Then, I added some drips and splashes of paint to frame the birds.  Which do you like better.. with the drips or without?

The paints I used for this painting are: Angora Watercolor Pan Set Crayola Artista II Watercolor Set
Art is Basic
Facebook
Etsy
Pinterest