As I work this painting I am going to track my progress with a step by step detail of the process. The subject matter and the working title of this piece will be "Blue Macaws". The medium, as always, will be acrylic on stretched canvas. This painting is a part of a series called The Blue Series.
1. Select the canvas. For this painting I chose a large canvas 48"X30"
2. I created a black and white copy and added a 1/2" square grid
3. I drew the grid lines on the canvas at a 4:1 ratio
4. Next, draw the basic outline of the subject matter in pencil
5. I lay down a base for the jungle flora. Here I put all the different green paints and one yellow paint on the palette and with a damp sponge blot the canvas randomly. It's likely much of this will be painted over with detail. The object is to cover all the white.
6. With dark green paint I layout the basic shapes of the flora.
7. Next I paint in the detail on the leaves, mixing different greens and yellows.
8. The branch that supports the birds in my picture is painted in in dark browns, black and gray. Using Gesso I then paint in the outlines of the birds covering over the greens that spilled over the lines. This will make the blues and yellows cover better and standout.
9. Here I've blocked in the base colors for the Macaws themselves. As with the background the concern is just to lay in a foundation of color - detail to come later.
10. Next I paint the face details on each bird. In this phase I am doing the fine detail that will become the final product. It wouldn't matter where I started since this is when great care is taken on every aspect of the painting.
11. Lastly I paint the detail on the plumage and add the feet.
See the finished painting HERE
