Beginner-friendly realistic watercolor birds | Eastern Bluebird

hello and welcome to my channel today we are going to paint this dashing eastern bluebird so first i started by applying a glaze of ample amount of water with my biggest brush please take your time and let the paper really soak in the water with the same brush in hand i now took some windsor blue very dilute tea-like consistency and applied it all over the bird's head and back as a base layer being very careful not allowing any paint to enter into the eye area this is the only area which i did not wet when i applied the glaze of water i also applied dilute windsor blue on the tail feathers when the shine on the paper was gone i lifted some paint from this area if you want you can leave this area unpainted while applying the first layer i preferred lifting here because i think it creates softer edges so while the base layer was drying i took my round brush number three and a very dilute burnt sienna to start painting the eyes i painted the whole area inside the eye except for the white highlight and if you don't want to use a masking fluid use the wet on dry technique that is to say do not wet the paper in the eye area to paint it so when the burnt sienna layer was dry i took my thinner brush triple zero and a thicker consistency of Payne's gray to start marking out the iris and also shaping the eye please take your time to paint the eye it is a very delicate area and it is very important not to lose the white highlight of the eye to create realism and also use the Payne's gray to paint the rim of the eye then i applied another layer of Payne's gray to darken the eye area depending on the level of contrast you might get from different layers of different pigments you have to apply as many layers as required then i took a thicker consistency of burnt umber to paint on the iris of the bird's eye to give it a little bit of warmth now that the base layer or the first layer was completely dry so i applied some water on the forehead of the bird and then dropped in french ultramarine blue thicker consistency and then use my brush to spread it upwards then i dropped in some Payne's gray thicker consistency as well my round brush triple zero and a thicker consistency of Payne's gray to create a very light feather texture here now i applied a glaze of water on the neck area of the bird and then took a very dilute burnt sienna and then with my round brush triple zero i created the feather texture by doing short outward flicks and then i did the same thing here near the beak of the bird then i took my round brush three and Payne's gray thicker consistency to darken the area around the eyes here in this area i wanted to apply the salt technique i have broken it down in two steps but those of you who are already familiar with the salt technique you can do this in just one step so first i applied a glaze of water and then dropped in french ultramarine blue and created the feather textures with my round brush triple zero and then let it dry so while it was drying i applied a glaze of water on the chest of the bird and its belly and then applied a very dilute burnt sienna with my round brush number six dropping it here and there leaving plenty of white space in between to depict the white feathers and then use my brush to soften the edges wherever required and then i took a thicker consistency of burnt umber to apply on the top part of the chest and then use my thinner brush triple zero with flicking motion to create feather texture also dropped in a little bit of the thicker consistency of burnt umber under the wing feathers now when the paper was completely dry here i applied a glaze of water then dropped in some french ultramarine blue and used my brush to spread it around then i took common salt or table salt and sprinkled it over the moist area and then removed the salt when the paper was completely dry then with my round brush number three i applied a thicker consistency of Payne's gray creating feather textures in this area now coming to the beak i applied a very very dilute Payne's gray on both the lower and the upper beak and then let it dry meanwhile i first applied a glaze of water on the branch and then took desert green from schmincke it's a very beautiful granulating pigment and then applied this pigment on the branch on the top area now here we are going to do some negative painting that is to say painting the branch is going to give shape and form to the feathers of the bird i switched to my thinner brush to make the feather texture with flicking motion and i dropped some french ultramarine on the lower part of the branch to create visual interest and to echo the color of the bird on the branch now i applied a thicker consistency of Payne's gray with my round brush number three to reinforce the color then i use my round brush triple zero and a thicker consistency of Payne's gray to create the fine line to distinguish between the upper and the lower beak i felt like all the feather details just below the eye area was a bit distracting so i took a slightly damp brush and gently rubbed over the area to remove some of them moving on to the wing feathers now i took my round brush number three and a tea-like consistency of french ultramarine blue and first i laid down the french ultramarine blue and use my brush to spread the paint around then dropped in some more of the french ultramarine blue just at the base of the top feather and then use my triple zero round brush to create some feather texture there then i took my triple zero round brush and a thicker consistency of Payne's gray to paint the tip of the feathers which are black in color taking my thin brush once again making outward flicking motion to create some feather textures now coming to this wing feather which i deliberately left unpainted in order to keep a gap between the top and the lower wing feathers so that the paints would not bleed into each other since these individual wing feathers are quite small in area so i did not apply any glaze of water first i directly applied the paint which is also quite dilute and first i applied french ultramarine and then applied the Payne's gray on the tip and around the border of each and every wing feather here i dropped in a small amount of burnt sienna here in the lower part of the wing feathers i applied only Payne's gray thicker consistency in this part of the wing feather first i applied a wash of french ultramarine in the whole area and then with my round brush triple zero i simply drew on the lines following my sketch for this tail feather on the left i applied both Payne's gray and french ultramarine blue and dropped in some more thicker consistency french ultramarine blue at the point where the tail starts on this tail feather on the right i first applied a glaze of water and then applied a thicker consistency of french ultramarine blue and used my brush to spread the paint then i took my round brush triple zero and a thicker consistency of Payne's gray to paint the darker parts of the feather then i applied a thicker consistency of french ultramarine blue on this side of the feather to enhance the color to paint these tiny feathers i use the negative painting technique that is to say applying color on the area around the subject so first i lay a dilute consistency of french ultramarine around the feather i want to paint and then use my damp brush to soften the edges i used a very dilute burnt sienna and also a very dilute Payne's gray to paint the feet of the bird and also used a thicker consistency of Payne's gray to paint the claws when you think your painting is finished it is a good idea to come back to the painting the next day or after a couple of days to see with fresh eyes if any adjustments are required so here i noticed that i had to adjust a little bit more the wing feathers also i applied a little bit more of french ultramarine blue on the forehead of the bird to reduce the contrast between the two different shades of blue i also applied another layer of burnt sienna on the belly area of the bird just on the top part thank you very much for watching till the end please like share and subscribe if you haven't already and i will see you next week with a new tutorial bye for now