[Woodcarver] Bird painting

[John Raghanti]

Hi Merryl,

    Looking at pictures of the tree swallow (admittedly, never carved one) I see several different shades of blue going on, from a light sky blue, to a light navy. The black seems to outline the eyes, beak, and wing areas. I'd start with the light blue as a base and work toward the darker colors. You'll probably have to work quickly to blend the areas so that you don't get sharp lines. Then after you get the coloring you want, I would dry it and mix up a wash of medium blue and matte medium to reproduce the iridescence. Now that I'm thinking about it, some matte medium in the light blue base might not be a bad idea either, because the darker areas don't seem to have as much sheen as the lighter ones.
    Hope that helps!

John





 
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