Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Winter Wren in Watercolour

The winter wrens are singing! My dog and I were walking in the thick part of the forest near our house two days ago and this beautiful little bird was singing his song. He is ready for spring even if there is still some patches of snow in the deep woods. If you are as partial to winter wrens as I am, here is my post of a bird carving. My Carved Winter Wren
'Winterwren's Forest'
watercolour by me, Eileen Gidman
The technique I used for this painting was a bit different than my usual approach to watercolour. For this bird painting as shown below with the apple blossom painting, I penned in the darks using a nib pen and ink first. As a general rule, in my watercolour painting, I put the darks in last so doing the inking first was quite a fun change. Stage two was simply painting in several values of medium tones while leaving the lights.
For me a little change is invigorating, so if you paint watercolours you might want to give this technique a try. I used India Ink for the apple blossom and acrylic dark brown ink for 'Winter Wren's Forest'.  Be sure to let your ink dry thoroughly before adding watercolour if you want to avoid bleeding of the ink.
http://prairiebirder.wordpress.com  Check this link for 'Feather's on Friday'.


Spring is here and it will soon be apple blossom time in the beautiful Creston Valley.
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6 comments:

Win Dinn, Artist said...

Now you've got me anticipating those lovely apple blossoms - you've done a fabulous job on them!

HollyM said...

The wren is so sweet! The soft background and detailed foreground is perfect? I really admire your command of the media.

Watercolour and Textile Artist, Eileen Gidman said...

Thanks for the feedback. The background of the bird was done using a wet in wet technique which leaves edges soft.

Mellowood Gallery said...

The wren is fabulous. I like the detail that pen can give us and often forget how much I enjoy pen with watercolor. You have me thinking I need to do some soon.

Laura Leeder said...

Love the technique and the outcome. I can hear that wren singing and the blossoms smell heavenly!

Gloria said...

Your happy,chubby little wren is perfect! Love the blurry background! Can't wait for the spring blossoms to arrive soon!