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Easy Watercolor The Great Blue Heron Tutorial. How to paint with watercolor : Step-by-Step guide to painting The Great Blue Heron with Watercolor
How to paint with watercolor : Step-by-Step guide to painting The Great Blue Heron with Watercolor
In this easy watercolor painting tutorial, I’ll walk you through my step-by-step process for painting a watercolor bird: The Great Blue Heron. Birds are an evergreen trend, meaning they never go out of style! Whether you want to sell your art online or simply want to share your art with family and friends, learning how to paint watercolor birds is key. Everyone loves nature & birds, so this is a fantastic motif to learn whether you’re a watercolor beginner or an experienced artist looking to bulk up your art portfolio.
This tutorial will show the process for painting a watercolor: The Great Blue Heron, but the techniques you’ll learn can be applied no matter what kind of bird you want to paint! For example, The Great Egret, Sandhill Crane & White Stork have similar shapes to The Great Blue Heron, so feel free to follow along and paint The Great Blue Heron or pick a different bird to paint.
Here are a few reference images you can use as you’re painting!
If you prefer to learn in video format, check out my class, Watercolor: The Great Blue Heron, where I walk through The Great Blue Heron paintings step-by-step. In this class, you’ll learn how to paint a watercolor: Great Blue Heron. And the best part?
Now let’s dive into learning to paint a watercolor Great Blue Heron!
Overview:
You can use whatever watercolors you have on hand for this tutorial. Since I’m painting The Great Blue Heron, I’ll be using various blue and yellow watercolors to create some depth and visual interest in my painting. I’ll also be using round brushes in varying sizes. If you want to check out my full list of supply recommendations, you can find it here.
We’ll be painting our Great Blue Heron in three separate stages. We’ll start with one layer of paint, then add a second layer, and finish with painting the details.
This will allow the paint to dry in between each step and will result in a beautiful texture in the feathers.
Drawing:
Since there are lots of layers to this bird, we won’t do a full sketch. It will be painted more free-form so that no pencil marks show through the watercolor feathers. But it’s nice to have some kind of guide to start with.
So grab a pencil and trace the shape of great blue herons. This will give you a guide for where the head of the bird will be.
Step 1: First layer of paint
Now it’s time to start on the first layer of paint. Prep your palette with the tones that you plan to work with. In my example, I’m using thin layers of blues & yellows for the first layer and more opaque, tones for the second layer. This will help make beautiful texture and allows you to play with paint.
"The good watercolors take a lifetime - plus a half an hour." - Toni Onley
Start with a mop brush (I’m using a size #2) and paint the body with a layer of paint 1st.
Then I add some more strokes below the neck Area.
I just love dropping colour in this manner it creates a beautiful effect in this kind of watercolour painting.
Step 2: Second layer of paint
Darken out the neck area with little thick paint to make a beautiful contrast.
Apply some more amount of paint while the area is already wet.
Add some more strokes to make the feathers loosely but a little more vibrant.
Watercolor paintings are considered a unique way to creatively represent dreams, illusions, emotions, and bright feelings using water-soluble pigments.
Step 3: Third layer of paint
Add more colors to the crown and blue shades are looking amazing here.
I am using here round brush of (#size 0).
Add blue shades to the beak of The Great Blue Heron.
Detailing
Work over the eye with darker shades.
Add more detail in the head portion as well as in the neck area and I am using shades of orange & yellow here.
Add a finishing touch to its feather.
Finally, add shades of orange to give it the final touch to its body.
Once you’re done, your Great Blue Heron should look something like this!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this watercolor tutorial! I’d love to see your Great Blue Heron! Share what you paint on Instagram and be sure to tag me @bottlebrushart so I can like and comment on your artwork!
Want to learn to paint more paintings?
I teach a full-length class where you'll learn to paint other watercolor & acrylic paintings.
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I help self-taught artists to grow in their own artistic journey, they really want. I'm an art educator, and I love youtube (I'm looking at you, YouTube and Instagram!) I love teaching, and I love the creative online community --> that means YOU!
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