How I Paint Realistic Birds in Acrylic | Robin Tutorial

Most people think acrylic paint can't achieve the depth of an old mast painting. But by building many transparent layers you can create incredibly rich colors, softness and detail. Other artists sometimes are surprised to learn that my works paint in acrylics rather than oils. And in this tutorial I'm going to show you exactly how I paint this robin layer by layer. And how I create realistic feathers, subtle light and depth using acrylic paint. The paint I use most is from Triart. It has a low viscosity but a very high pigment load, so the quality is really excellent. I also have a discount code if you'd like to try it yourself. You can get 10% off your entire order. I'll leave it in the description. I've already applied a beige layer, but of course we're going to develop this way further. And the brushes I'm going to use in this tutorial are Richard brushes. I'm starting by reapplying a good base layer because I accidentally painted over this area while working on the background. This base layer is made from green, yellow ochre and reddish brown. You can think of it as a middle tone, not too light and not too dark, based on what I see in the reference image. Of course the base color of the robin's chest needs to be different from the rest of the body, and for this middle tone I mix brown, orange, green and blue to create a warm foundation for the chest area. This is also why I always paint the background first and then the objects in front of it afterwards, because painting around them later is much more difficult. I don't only work from dark to light, but also from rough to increasingly defined and detailed. At this stage it doesn't need to be very precise yet. Now I'm mixing a darker tone using blue, brown, orange and green, and with this color I'm looking in the shapes of the tail and wings. Sorry this part's going a little bit fast, but I mixed a darker version of the mid-tone color I used on the body, and with this mixture I'm establishing the deepest shadows area first, creating a strong foundation for the layers that will follow. You'll notice that I always work from dark to light, I'm carefully establishing everything now because all these layers I'm painting will later suddenly show through the final work. Now I'm mixing yellow with a little white, green and orange to create a warm tone, and with this I'm softly painting in the lighter feathers on the wings, and I do this very carefully. You'll notice that I keep my brush fairly wet and never load too much paint onto it. This allows me to create very fine and delicate brushstrokes. I'm letting the wings rest for a moment so the paint can dry properly before I continue with the next layer. And in the meantime I'll continue working on the tail of the bird, and here I'm using a little more water than I normally would. I never use a lot of paint and I always keep my brush moist, but this time I'm adding slightly more water because I want to apply a transparent layer that creates a very soft feather texture. The color I'm using here is based on the mixture I already had on my palette, the orange green yellow and blue, but now I'm adding a bit more white and slightly more blue to create a soft warm bluish tone. Because the layer is transparent you can really see through it, and I even wipe parts of it away again with my finger. Then I add even more white to the feather color mixture and gradually build lighter accents, especially around the edges of the feathers where the light catches them. These highlights are applied a little more concentrated. Now I'm moving back to the wings and again I'm using white and yellow and just a tiny bit of blue to place even more highlights onto the feathers. It's really important to carefully observe the reference image and think about the structure underneath so you know exactly where these highlights should go. Now I'm refining the beak a little more. For this I use white yellow and a tiny touch of blue while keeping the color very light overall. All right now we're moving on to a more refined stage and this means I'm switching to a thinner brush than before. We're going to start painting the feather texture itself. I'm using a dark mixture of green blue yellow and brown. It's still fairly dark but slightly lighter than the darker stones I already used on the body here. Next I make the mixture I already created slightly lighter by adding more green yellow and a touch of brown with a little extra yellow overall. Then I apply another layer to gradually build up the form and depth of the feathers. Very carefully I create the movement of the feathers using short thin strokes. I constantly study the reference image to make sure the feather direction is correct. If you want to create a convincing three-dimensional effect the direction of these strokes is extremely important. And now we're going one step lighter again. I'm using exactly the same colors but making the mixture slightly lighter and then applying another layer of feathers. Again I'm constantly checking the reference to understand where the light should hit more strongly and where the feathers fall more into the shadows. You can already see how this bird starts to come forward visually. Now I'm adding the gray feathers. I create this tone by mixing the ochre, green, brown and white mixture with blue and brown. Slightly more blue to create a warm gray tone. You can also see these gray shades throughout the feathers on the entire body. I also need to re-establish some of the darker areas between the feathers so I mix a little white with blue and brown and carefully place those darker sections back in. Even later more shadows can be still be added. I continue refining everything including the wings and the tail. Now I'm taking my purple, brown and green tones and filling them quite a lot with water. And then I carefully apply this layer and almost immediately wipe parts of it away again where I want more subtle shadows. And working this way creates a very soft and natural transition. I'm applying this technique in the middle of my painting process but later in the end, in the very end, I'll do this again. Next I mix blue, yellow and brown again, but this time one step lighter for additional highlights on the feathers of the body. Another beautiful highlight color is a soft yellow tone. So here I mix yellow, green and white together to create a subtle yellow glow I see within the feathers. Then I make this color slightly lighter again with more yellow and white and applies another soft highlight. Now I'm going to focus more on the gray feathers I see in the reference image. And to create this color I mix more blue and white into the yellow, green, white mixture I already have, which creates a beautiful warm gray tone. Now I'm starting on the robin's chest. I've added pink to my palette and I'm mixing green, pink and orange together to create a deep warm red tone. First I establish the darker feathers hairs on the chest. I even make a mixture slightly darker so certain parts can blend more softly into the background. And for this I simply add a little black. And then I begin by mixing more orange and pink into the existing mixture I have here for his chest and I carefully place the lighter color of his feathers. Now I'm making my orange mixture a little lighter by adding more yellow. With this I'm applying another lighter layer of orange feathers. Okay I wasn't completely happy with the position of the robin's eye and I felt it needed to sit slightly further back, so I painted over the part of it again. And that's one of the wonderful things about acrylic paint, it's so easy to repaint. Especially when you work in thin transparent layers like I do. Now I'm mixing a lighter orange tone. This time I also add a tiny touch of white and some yellow to create a lighter color. And I carefully place more highlights. And around the eye itself there are even more lighter tones. Then I take my pure black again and redefine certain areas around the eye and beak. All right now we can start painting the legs and I begin by mixing pink with yellow and a little blue. This is another middle tone simply to establish the structure of the legs as a first layer. Then I darken the mixture slightly with more pink and blue and place the darkest areas first. And after that I create a lighter tone than the original middle color and carefully apply highlights. I repeat this once more with even a lighter shade. You can see that I'm constantly using the same principle. Middle tones first, then the darkest areas and gradually working lighter and lighter. Now I'm mixing the real highlights and carefully studying where I want the light to catch more strongly. I do this by mixing a lot of titanium white with a little bit of yellow. The thing about acrylic paint is that it dries a few shades darker than when it's first applied, which is why you often need to return with lighter tones afterwards. I actually don't mind this because it almost forces you to work in many layers and that's exactly how you create very rich depth and detail. What I'm doing now is also one of my favorite techniques. I mix green with a lot of water and I glaze it over the surface and even wipe parts of it away again with my finger. This creates even a softer transition between the layers and adds extra warmth and depth. Now we're going to bring life into this robin. I'm going to mix green with blue and keep the tone fairly dark. I carefully place a small reflection inside the eye. Then I lighten that mixture up a little bit with a little bit of white and place another reflection next to it. And finally I use pure white for the very last highlight. Pure white is something I only use at the absolute end of the brightest sections and I always use it very sparingly. And as you can see I do this all over his body. Lastly I mix green with purple and I dilute it heavily again. This green purple mixture creates a beautiful deep brown tone and that I applied this very selectively in areas where I want slightly more shadow and depth. And with that the robin is finished. As you can see creating depth with acrylic paint is really all about patience and building many subtle layers on top of each other. Yet every transparent glaze, every small feather, every stroke and every highlight adds a little more life into the painting. I hope this tutorial gave you a better understanding of how I approach realism in acrylics and maybe even inspired you to experiment more with layering in your own work. And I thank you so much for watching and I'll see you in the next one!