Aussie Icons The Laughing Kookaburra

I was so pleased with this photograph, I couldn’t wait to start drawing, it was the very first I took with my new digital SLR camera.

- Corinne Smith-Rush

MATERIALS

• Half sheet of white Colourfix paper taped to a backing board

• A workable matt spray fixative and SpectraFix spray for final fixing

• Art Spectrum and Rembrandt soft pastels: Pale blue, dark brown, mid-brown, mid pink, light yellow, light grey, orange, white, burnt sienna, reddish brown

• Faber-Castell hard pastels: mid-grey, dark grey, light warm grey, lavender, mid-brown

• Faber-Castell pastel pencils: Very dark blue No. 157, black, white, dark yellow, mid-green, dark brown, light grey, mid-grey

• Conte pastel pencil: Pale blue No.56

• Conte Pastel Pencil No.56

• No 2 chisel blender

• No 2 pointed blender

• Putty rubber

• Wet cloth or wet ones

STEP ONE

Firstly I applied a very pale blue soft pastel (gently rubbed in with my finger) to the background immediately around the birds and the very small foliage. This allows the detailed edges to remain clear when color is applied, I find this method means I don’t have to put back any detail lost when I put in the rest of the background.

Next, I applied very dark brown soft pastel to the eye and feathers where they are darkest, then a dark blue pastel pencil to the beak and a mid-pink, light yellow and light grey soft pastels to the lower beak blended with the chisel blender, as fingers are too big for some areas.