Sunday, September 9, 2012

Painting your Great Osprey: The early stages...

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Here is the promised stage by stage post on painting the Great Osprey!

For this piece, I primed it white:
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Here are some reference pictures that I was working from:

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I tried to keep my palette in the pictures, to give you a decent idea of what color I was using.  I started out by working the back of the bird, establishing the warm browns...

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Even at this point, I was trying to get some gradations, where the feathers would be a lighter, more yellowish color, moving towards cooler, darker wing tips...
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Continuing to fill out the back of the wings, working it darker and darker, with browns and a bit of blue mixed together.

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You can also see that I was setting up the alternating light and dark patterns on the tail feathers.

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Time to work on the front feathers! 

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I was using some tan and purple/grey color to get things started:
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Once I had everything covered, I started to lighten some areas, using a yellow white n some places, but a cooler blue/white in others.

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I established some more highlights, and began to set up the darker markings on the face and wing edges.

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Not to forget the base!  I started with a dark grey with a bit of brown, but used a bright turquoise to lighten it.  The idea is to get some contrast from the warmer colors being used on the bird itself.

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These next few images really show the markings develop:
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Once all the making and highlights are set up, I will be able to start doing a few glazes and washes to darken it.

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I did a little bit of dark lining around the edges of the feathers on the wing interiors, using a few different shades of dark brown.  Some were cooler, and others were more reddish.

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OK, stay tuned for the next set of images, where we finish off the bird, and paint the rider!

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