My very first word was “bird” and I also loved drawing them as a kid. Now, many (many, many) years later I am still drawing and painting birds, and loving it more than ever! So much so I recently released my very first book “Simply Paint Birds”, and worked closely with Daniel Smith to produce an accompanying dot card. Not only do I love painting birds, but their character, colours, movement and energy makes them the perfect subject for the fluidity and immediacy of watercolour. They are also a great subject to get to grips with the characteristics and basic techniques of watercolour.

In this article I will take you step by step through a painting of Tawny Owl which was created as one of two video tutorials for my online School of Watercolour to celebrate the release of the book. This Owl covers a nice variety of techniques and ideas, with a few fun challenges around timing for the wet in wet markings.

---

Materials needed for this tutorial

Brushes

My go to brushes for all of my painting are the wonderful Panart mops. They hold loads of water and pigment, perfect for loose, bold painting. Their fantastically fine point releases in a very controlled way, and they cope easily with smaller areas of accuracy and refinement. It is easy to flip between both approaches with the same brush. They also retain their shape and point even after a lot of heavy use!

• Size 16 Panart Synthetic Squirrel Mop: larger size for big washes and bold brushstrokes
• Size 12 and Size 8 Panart Synthetic Squirrel Mops: medium and small sizes for smaller areas & marks, yet still plenty of flow
• Panart Pointed Round size 12: excellent for fine details and finishing touches.

Colours

I use exclusively Daniel Smith Watercolour paints. They are packed full with lots of juicy pigment providing rich and deep colour, even with the more transparent colours. Perfect for loose wet into wet work like this. They are simply an absolute pleasure to work with!

• French Ultramarine or Ultramarine Blue – A rich warm blue by itself, but with delicate softness that makes it perfect as mixing blue for any palette. It also granulates to add texture and interest. I use French Ultramarine in this painting as I find it to be a little more gentle and soft than the normal version.
• Quinacridone Pink or Quinacridone Rose – I absolutely love all the Quinacridone colours for their vibrant transparency. They provide rich colours but are also perfect for mixing. In this case the cooler reddy pinks will be perfect.
• Indian Yellow – Indian Yellow is firm favourite of mine for so many subjects. It has gentle vibrancy with great versatility in both the cool and warm direction. And like the above two colours it’s transparency makes it a wonderful mixing yellow too.
• Yellow Ochre – A classic colour that adds an earthy, sunny warmth to both palette and painting. I have always enjoyed the Daniel Smith version as it feels a little lighter and more delicate in the way it behaves, but still packs punch of pigment when needed.
• Quinacridone Burnt Orange – This is what I use in place of Burnt Sienna. Being a Quinacridone colour I find it is lighter, more transparent and more vibrant than Burnt Sienna. It feels lighter to work with. At the same time it plays the role of Burnt Sienna equally well when mixed with Ultramarine blues. This combination creates everything from soft greys to deep rich darks (I often use Transparent Pyrrole Orange for the same reason).
• Lavender and/or Titanium white are couple of heavy opaque colours that can be a very useful for a few flicks at the end.

Colour mixing possibilities

Paper

This painting was done on Baohong Masters Choice, cold press, 140lb/300gsm, at A3 size (31 x 41cm /
12” x 16” approx.) I also love painting these sorts of subjects on my absolute favourite handmade cotton rag paper by Panart. An excellent paper which is extremely forgiving and holds colour beautifully. Plus it retains a gentle dampness for a wonderful length of time to allow for soft wet in wet work. The final surface finish of these Panart papers is very pleasing too. Highly recommended!

Before we start

Stage 1

With an extremely watery, light mix of yellow ochre and the large size 16 mop, I map out the
beginnings of the owl, leaving plenty of whites on the page to keep it lively and fresh. Where I want to intensify the colour a little I bring up the paint consistency of the Yellow Ochre to be a touch thicker. Dropping this into the existing light wash whilst it is still wet allows it to “soften in” creating that wonderful wet in wet effect. In areas away from the face I start to bring in small amounts of the French Ultramarine Blue to the watery yellow ochre which creates wonderfully soft muted greys.

Stage 2

Sticking with the larger Size 16 mop I continue to drop increasingly stronger mixes of both Yellow Ochre and also the Burnt Quinacridone Orange into the drying first washes.

This stage is all about timing and paint consistency. If I go in too early with the darker mixes (whilst the page is still very wet), they will spread out further than I might like. If I go in too late (when the page is much drier/totally dry) I won’t get that lovely soft wet in wet look. Equally, if there is too much water and not enough pigment in the brush relative to the wetness of the page the marks will spread out further than I would like. I don’t want to go too dark at this stage as I am working the light family of tonal values. In this case doing so would mean the light areas go too dark as the deeper colours bleed into them. This leads to a loss of the strong sense of light and shadow which I am chasing.

Stage 3

Once the owl is nearly dry (a little dampness to create softer edges is fine) I create a milky
consistency mixture of the Quinacridone Burnt Orange and the French Ultramarine and paint in
some background using the larger size 16 mop. I want lots of flowing paint for the background but
also need the control of the fine point for the accuracy of shape around the face – this brush is
perfect! These colours together create that beautiful soft grey which has some variegation in it due to the
two opposing colours, but also has some gentle granulation from the blue. I use the negative shape of the background to create the positive shape of the face, at the same time trapping the light. Rather than simply painting a dark background around the entire bird I am looking to break the background up to create more interest.

Stage 4

With a tiny amount of dampness left on the bird I come in with a thicker creamy mix of mostly
Burnt Orange, with the tiniest touch of Blue to darken. I strike these marks in with the Size 8 mop to begin creating the more defined markings on the front of the bird. Whilst I do want to go darker than the surroundings it does not need to be as dark as possible. The darkest darks will be reserved for markings in the shadows. Different parts of the owl have different levels of dampness, this will create natural variation to
these darker markings – one the joys of watercolour being that we are never in full control!!

Stage 5

Having done the same in the wing area as on the chest but using larger, broader brush marks with
the size 16 mop, I start to home in on the face. I begin by dropping down the smaller size 8 mop again, mapping out the eye shape with a milky mix of Yellow Ochre. I leave the white of the page as the highlight on the eye and simply yet carefully move out into the surrounding markings and colours on the light-side of the face.

Stage 6

Now the painting is further along, and all of the initial washes have dried, I feel a little more
confident to start pushing the tones darker in the face. Initially I lay down a mid-tone creamy mix of the Burnt Orange to map out the strong face markings. Once happy I soften the odd edge with a damp brush and then drop in a slightly darker mixes that includes a touch of the blue.

Stage 7

This next stage of starting to wash a mid-tone blue-ish shadow over the face and the wing area is really exciting. The form of the owl really starts to show, along with a sense of depth and light. I also block in the base colour of the eye by adding some Burnt Orange to the blue. For me it is always the light that makes a subject come to life, but we get light in watercolour by painting shadow.

However, this stage can also feel a little scary as not only are we washing transparent washes – in
this case mostly pure French Ultramarine Blue (occasionally a touch of the Quinacridone Rose) –
over the top of existing dry colours; we are also leaping the painting forward by being bold and
decisive with the shadows. This stage is necessary to take the painting towards a finish!

I wash in a very gentle mix of Yellow Ochre and a small touch of blue into the shadow side of the
beak, as well as pushing in a handful of truly dark marks on the shadow side of the face only. A
thick mix of Burnt Orange and the Blue create this lovely neutral but rich dark.

Stage 8

As soon as those eyes go in the owl lives! Many people paint the eyes first. This can make us feel so much more confident as to where the painting is going. 90% of the time I put the eyes in much closer towards the end…it’s purely a personal thing. For me they are like the reward at the end. If I am liking where the painting is without the eyes in, then I know once I get them in (as long as I don’t over fuss and
complicate them) the eyes will go “pop” and make the whole painting work!

To paint the eyes I am right down to the size 8 mop. For the really fine and accurate shapes I use the
size 12 pointed round. I slowly but surely push the overall tone of the eyes darker. Being sure to leave the highlights. The white of the page serves as the bright highlight on the light side of the face. I will keep the sheen of the eye softer and less bright in the shadow side of the face. This helps to further the illusion of
light, shadow and depth. We tend to focus so heavily on the eyes that is easy to over complicate this stage in pursuit of making them “perfect”. I find a simple yet accurate shape, with just a few choice details in and around is all that is really needed. The quicker and more simply I can show the eyes, the better!

The finished painting

The final touches were to deepen the tone of the eye in shadow, including a few marks around it to
help it sit in the head more naturally. I use a tiny touch of the wonderful opaque lavender colour. I use this thick straight of the tube on the eye in shadow. It adds a little extra shine to the eye, but is nowhere near as bright as pure white. If you want to achieve the same without lavender you can add a little titanium white or white gouache to the blue. The odd flick of pure titanium white under the face helps the light trickle across above the wing a little more. And there we have it.

The final painting has the illusion of complexity in places, but when we compare it to a real Tawny
Owl I have dramatically simplified the amount of markings, choosing to focus much more on larger
shapes of light and shadow. This simplification allows for a looser and more free approach, which I love. There is still a sensitivity to the character and key features of the subject that gives an impression of the beauty of these wonderful birds, but without getting bogged down in all of the details.

I hope you enjoyed this, and also liked up the odd useful bit of information along the way.
You can find more about me and my work on my website and if you would like to follow along
with a video tutorial of this painting, and many other birds, wildlife, and lots of other subjects, you
can checkout my School of Watercolour.