Realistic Wings Tutorial: Part II
(Part I can be found here.)
In my last tutorial, I went over the different types of wings, different feather shapes, some dos-and-donâts, and how to draw wings overall. In this tutorial, weâll be talking less about realism, and more about how I paint wings in general, using watercolor techniques such as âwet on dryâ and âwet on wetâ.Â
Step 1: Decide the shape and pose of the wing.Â
Here I have lightly sketched out the shape of my wing. I chose an elliptical wing shape, since I donât do those often, and loosely determined the shape of the secondaries and primaries. Keep in mind, with watercolor you want to sketch lightly especially if you know you will be painting with light or transparent colors later.Â
Step 2: A little more detail...
Unless you are very confident with what you are painting, I recommend further detailing your drawing to make sure the details (in this case, feathers) that you have in mind, will look alright once put down on paper. Again, work lightly. Even this pencil here is a bit too dark. (Ideally, you would sketch with an H pencil, not mechanical, but I donât follow my own advice there. ;âD )
Step 3: Pick your colors!Â
This could be itâs own tutorial, but Iâll get to that another time. For now, you can see that I cleaned up my sketch to the lightest bare minimum I could, while still being able to see what Iâm doing.Â
Then I take a scrap piece of paper (I save watercolor paper scraps from my paper cutter and keep them for this purpose) and experiment with colors that I have in mind. Generally, I try to pick out three separate colors for light, medium, and dark values.Â
In this case, I knew I wanted light Manganese Blue wings that faded to a rich Windsor Blue, but I wasnât sure what my dark color should be and what would really go well with my other two colors. So I laid out some options I thought might work, compared them, and decided on Indigo!Â
When a wash of color, you have to work somewhat quickly. You want to put down and blend your color before the water dries, but you also donât want to put down SO much water that your color âfloatsâ above the surface of the paper, or your paper buckles excessively. I personally pick out manageable sections to apply my washes to.Â
Here, I started with only the primaries, and laid clean water down ONLY where I wanted pigment to be, then I applied color at the tips since I wanted my wings to have a dark to light (nearly white) gradient. Then I moved onto the secondaries, and then up to the coverts.Â
While my first washes were drying (very important!) I decided I wanted to add in another color for the primary and secondary coverts, maybe like a parrot wing of some kind? I decided I wanted to include one of my favorite colors: âCobalt Turquoise Lightâ and then decided on Cobalt Turquoise as the medium color, and Perylene Green as the dark color.Â
Itâs very important for my blue wash to be COMPLETELY dry before I add in the turquoise in the middle, because if itâs damp, my turquoise and green will bleed into the blue and I wonât get clear edges and it will get wonky pretty fast.Â
A few things happened between the last picture and this picture:Â
1. Once the Manganese Blue Hue wash was dry, I applied a clear wash of clean water to the middle feathers, and made a nice gradient of Cobalt Turquoise Light just like I previously did with the blue on the primaries and secondaries. Â
2. Once the Cobalt Turquoise Light wash was dry, I went back to the blue areas and applied clean water over those feathers again, and created a second layer for a gradient of Windsor Blue, just to add in more color.Â
In this picture, I added in the darker turquoise to the middle feathers with the same gradient technique as with the blue, and begin adding the Indigo.
Once all of my previous work is dry, I then decide that itâs time to start getting more detailed with each layer. I want there to be a nice gradient between a very light blue (almost white), to a rich vibrant blue, to that dark indigo color I picked out earlier. At the same time, I want to add in some clean lines.Â
I accomplish this by using a mixture of watercolor techniques known as âwet on dryâ and âwet on wetâ as shown below.Â
This technique allows me to create dark-tipped wings that refine into a clean line up the front of each feather as shown in the painting above.Â
Step 5: Adding the details!
Once I decide that Iâm done adding washes and gradients of various colors, I add in all the details! Here I used indigo to detail the blue feathers and coverts. I loaded my brush up with dark color, and began at the darkest parts of the feather, naturally allowing my pigment to become thinner and thinner as I reached the lighter parts of the feather, and added more water to my brush.
With small details, itâs important to not let your brush get dry. I donât let my brush run out paint and water, I just use more water in relation to the amount of pigment in my brush. Controlling the amount of paint vs the amount of water in your brush is a good thing to practice, and not allowing your brush to get dry keeps your lines smoother. Also, for most detail, I do âwet on dryâ, therefore there is no bleeding or blending that occurs, with a very small brush, you can almost get a âlineartâ look going, if thatâs a style you enjoy. ^_^
I didnât complete my mini-painting above, but you can continue building layers and then adding detail to your hearts content! This techniques can be used anywhere, not just wings. I use very similar methods for the layering and detailing of scales, fur, hair, etc.Â
Hope this helps in some way. Thank you for reading! :D
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