Painting a Heron taking off !

I am loving the freedom that my little studio in my garden gives me. I come out here and sit amongst the trees and watch the birds come and go from my bird feeders outside my window. I have an an Alexia to keep me company and I listen to plays, books and music as I paint. I know how lucky I am. i also feel very connected to the world via all of you, I have my computer in the corner and I love to read the comments and keep track of orders. Then every so often I write my blog, a different discipline to painting, but I like to think it keeps me fresh, and gives you all something to read, and perhaps have a go at if you feel like it.

I may have shown you a heron before, if so I am sorry, but I like all of you change, dare I say improve with time and I felt this was something people are keen to get to grips with. Movement !

I like to convey movement in a subject, and there are no hard and fast rules that I know of. Firstly some told me to paint what you see and the movement will appear, thank goodness then for photos. I also like to add splatters and connect the bird to the water , have some lost edges, and just kind of go for it.

As with almost all my work I start with a sketch

 

 

Then I get the detail out of the way, at the beginning I have more patience , and more concentration to get these bits done best.

 

 

On a heron like this , the beak and the eye, is tiny, so be careful. I also like to show the bird in profile as that shows the movement and means there is only one eye!

 

 

There the eye is done, so now I can move down the body, I use a lot of indigo in this piece , which also connects the bird to the water.

 

 

So you can see I painted in the markings on the body and then those long slender legs. Finally I let the water and paint run off the end of the legs and join the water he is taking off from. That is the painted in Indigo, quite loosely with hints at waves, and splashes. Then a splatter suggests the direction of movement.

 

 

Now to move to those splendid wings! I under-paint in something like cerulean blue and while it is still wet I add darker lines of indigo on the veins of the wings.I let the wings fly, by splattering water in the direction of movement and letting the paint run with it. I also turn my board the way the wings are moving so it all helps me do what I want to create.

 

 

Now you can begin on the the other wing in much the same way. and I let the end of the body dissolve into the water too.

 

 

Have some fun with it, I have added some white splatters of acrylic too, once it is all dry, and off my heron goes...

I think it is best not to go too mad with the splashes, suggest movement and let the viewer do the rest. This is a nice piece to try as there aren't too many different colours to get in the way.

I hope you have a go I love to hear how you get on x