Slim Pickings

A wonderful, simple painting of magpies scratching amongst the dry earth.

- Kathryn Hede

STEP ONE

I roughly painted my canvas by using up remaining paints from a previous painting in earthy tones. I rubbed out some areas and added more paint into sections and left any marks that will represent the dry earth and twigs etc. As I do not intend to paint a realistic depiction of these magpies, I need the background to be quite loose.

STEP TWO

Once I have decided on my images from my reference material, I lightly draw in the birds using a watercolour pencil. Sometimes I have already worked out where I want the birds to be placed but once I start to draw my images on the canvas, I may change the positioning.

STEP THREE

I quickly block in the darks of each bird. I do not use black but a mix of Paynes Grey and Burnt Umber. I mix up a grey from the original dark mix and paint in some lighter tones on the magpies.