Heron ( take off)

Hi everyone, Thursdays seem to come around so quickly, and I realise it is time to write another blog. I seem to twitter on about the weather or the state of things, and life trundles on. Last week it was unseasonably warm, but this week the temperature here in the UK has dropped considerably. I think because we experience big changes in a short time, us Brits talk about the weather a lot.

A walk on Sunday near Croyd in North Devon and it felt like summer ...

 

I hope wherever you are in the world that you can take joy in being outside, I walked with a few friends yesterday and we marvelled as the mist lifted and the reservoir came into focus, those steely greys were as beautiful as the bright blue skies, of a just a few days before.

 

Then my familiar walk up my trusty hill, and I say hello to a tree or view I see daily, but that changes constantly.

 

 

I am still recovering and taking things a a much gentler pace, late nights are a thing of the past, and if I overdo things, I certainly pay for it the next day, but I have a few tricks up my sleeve and I wrote this blog a few weeks ago, so I could give myself the odd Thursday off...now I think I'll pop the kettle on x

 

Today I wanted to show you how I go about painting a heron taking off. I think I may well have gone through this process before but nevertheless it is a subject I love to paint so here goes.

First I found a good photo and sketched out my heron

 

Next I went for the details. the eye is tiny so I used my smallest brush, using cadmium yellow and leaving a tiny white dot of unpainted paper. I then added a black pupil 

Next the beak and the top of the head. So the beak I painted on a dry paper. The head, not wet in wet so much as wet in damp. The paper is damp but not really wet.

Now the closest wing and this is mainly done in indigo and instinctively . The first dilute wash of indigo is my first wet layer then I add darker layers while it is still wet. You can see the delicious reactions that can happen.

Then I move onto those long slim legs, which I hope will also merge into the water, he's flying out of.

Ah there you go, plenty of splashes and sploshes. Be instinctive and let the watercolour do the work. The quicker and more instinctive those marks the better ( I think )

Then the far wing , I want to hint at the markings without being too precise.