In 2004 I was working on a small painting of a flying Ferruginous Hawk, and I scanned the work at several stages to show the progression from pencil sketch to finished painting. I created an annotated slideshow from those scans for my 2009-10 exhibit at the Mass Audubon Museum of American Bird Art. Now the slideshow is uploaded here. It shows each of the five scans and includes a brief commentary on my painting process at each stage.
Click the slides below to browse the series.
Fascinating and informative on several levels. Thanks!
This is going to be really helpful in our homeschool. We just discovered your site, and we’re so glad.
Big Sibley Guides fans!
What’s about a different book next time….”how to sketch and draw birds” by D. Sibley?
I would buy it! I am currently starting to draw birds, from pictures – mostly because it helps me to remember field marks, not for the result (terribly bad), and I don’t really know where or how to start.
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Hey David, Do you varnish your gouache paintings? I have tried with mixed success. Thanks Bob
Hi Bob, It’s a pleasure to hear from you. I’ve been an admirer of your work (and your brothers’), and embarrassed that I just discovered this comment here without a reply! I do not varnish my paintings at all, and I can imagine that varnishing gouache would be very tricky, since it would absorb some of the varnish, unlike acrylics or oils. Best, David
Hi David, I was looking forward to checking out your painting technique, but it looks like the link is broken – it shows a 404 not found error. Maybe the album got removed somehow?
Best,
Graham
Hi Graham, Thanks for pointing that out. It must have been broken for a while… It should work now as a slideshow in a pop-up window.
Best, David
Fantastic, thanks for doing that! Great stuff!
Enjoyed very much seeing slide show of your painting process – will remember it as I use your guides. Made me want to try to draw birds myself.
Hummingbirds very busy now
in northern Idaho…
Thanks David –
Donna Holmes
University of Idaho Biology Dept.
Link is fine now, thank you! Would love to see another; did you find one more challenging to paint than another?
Thanks
Jean Harrison