Painting a Great Blue Heron with watercolors, realism mixed with loose washes

In this video I am painting a Great Blue Heron with watercolors.
Materials used
Arches coldpress watercolor paper 140lbs
Daniel smith paints
Princeton brushes
This video is for learning purposes only. The copyright belongs to Kiley Busko/Painted Wing
Do not sell copies of artwork and please credit Kiley Busko/Painted Wing if shared online.

[@Roonspooon]

Beautiful painting and wonderful to see how you achieve it!

[@algetty8797]

I absolutely love all your videos, and no matter how many times I view them, still learning. Thank you!

[@paintedwing]

Thank you so much for watching :)

[@susanritchie9456]

I love it!

[@sylviaphillips9907]

Thank you so much for this tutorial. I love trying to paint herons and I always overwork them. I will watch this several more times and try again.

[@paintedwing]

Thanks for watching! Sometimes, I have to repaint things because I will accidentally overwork the first one. Have fun!

[@user-vh1ig1te8s]

Great tuto. Thanks!

[@miriamth7082]

You are amazing! I love your style! Thank you for sharing your process!

[@clairepenny247]

This is gorgeous 🙌

[@lakeside23]

This is gorgeous. I wish you would list your colors for those of us who aren’t as color savvy as you.

[@JenniferDonahue702]

I also would love to know for certain the colors. It looks to be yellow ochre, burnt sienna, and if I had to guess ultramarine blue and Payne's gray. I am guessing on the warm hues and observing the video only. I am bout to do my own from a similar reference drawing utilizing the beautiful technique demonstrated here. Learning so much from watching. I'd also guess that the very tiniest bit of guadinachrome gole would be lovely as a finishing touch to the beak but so sparingly as to keep it from taking the detailed painting and fading it or making it bleed to a color less vibrant than achieved here. Love, love watching you paint.

[@JenniferDonahue702]

So based on her comments on a similar watercolor of a blue heron, it is indigo, Payne's gray, cadmium yellow, burnt sienna , sepia, and Mayan blue genuine which I don't have. I think I can substitute gamboge as a warm yellow and either manganese with a bit of Payne's gray or Cerulean (almost a whisper of it) mixed with transparent orange. I'm likely to use the manganese blue with payne's gray since it's already in her palette, but I am going to do this sparingly also because that blue tends to create a washed out fade when it dries. I'm so new to this, but that is what I am going to try.

[@tasha5246]

You’re an amazing artist! Thank you for sharing your process. Really beautiful.

[@paintedwing]

Thank you

[@melodiasinger]

Hermoso ❤️❤️❤️😍😍😍

[@rmuller366]

Your work is so inspiring! I love birds and the way you paint them is extraordinary. Thank you for sharing. Blessings to you!

[@paintedwing]

Thank you so much!

[@VitasArtworks]

so wonderful ^_^

[@johndalenino]

This should have more views :) excellent demonstration!

[@paintedwing]

Thank you

[@rebeccalyons1327]

Thanks so much. Beautiful. What size is this painting? I’m working with 8x10s and don’t seem to have room for that much eye detail.

[@paintedwing]

11 x 14

[@lindaweekes8161]

This is beautiful. If you were doing a background , would you do it first and mask the edges of the bird? Or try to create the feathers at the edge of the bird while doing the background colour?

[@paintedwing]

You could do either. Depends on how you would want to tackle it, maybe test both methods out. I don't paint backgrounds very often

[@lindamacleod7055]

Amazing! But is the face wet on dry?

[@paintedwing]

Some of the details are yes

[@debbiesturdevant4908]

May I ask where you find your reference photos? I take photos of my country back yard birds but they don’t stay still enough! Lol

[@paintedwing]

Pinterest and bird photographers