- Not all birds fly south for the winter.

Next on Painting with Wilson Bickford, I'll show you one of my winter neighbors, with Mr. Bluejay.

(mellow music) Hi and welcome to Painting with Wilson Bickford, I'm glad you could join me today.

We're gonna paint a nice bluejay in a winter theme today.

I love to paint birds and I'm so happy that I can bring this bird lesson to you, it'll be a great lesson for ya.

We're gonna start out with some acrylic underpainting on this.

But if you go to the WPBSTV website, you can download a material list with all the brushes and paints that we're using today, as well as a sketch to transfer.

If you print this off the website, you take this, put it on your canvas, use some graphite transfer paper underneath the sketch, red pen on top will show your ink lines, red against the black.

When you put this on with the transfer paper, you wanna make your lines all jittery, like this.

So they look feathery, and all these lines count, all these lines, you're gonna wanna do a line around the outside, don't make the line around the outside too dominant, too dark, we use lighter pressure on your pen, you don't want that to show up in the end result.

But anything on the inside here, all of these lines will need to be nice and dark, make 'em solid, you'll end up with something looks like this.

Actually, this one's already been painted with my gesso, but I'm gonna talk about that here in just a second.

This will be oil painting, although we're gonna start out with a black acrylic underpainting.

So by the time you transfer that, now this is just on a piece of heavier paper, card stock.

This image would be on your canvas, I'm using it on this paper because it printed out lighter, so your image will actually be lighter on your canvas just by using your transfer paper, like this, rather than like this.

This one has been painted already.

So if you take your number two liner brush and I have some black acrylic gesso here, a little cup of water, this is water-based acrylic.

Take a little bit of water.

Now bear with me here, this, I'm pretending this image is transferred with the graphite paper onto my canvas.

This is how I get to this point from here.

So on your canvas, you're gonna take it with the black acrylic, see how much darker this will be.

You might not think you're gonna be able to discern where it is, you will, this will show up much darker than your graphite transfer.

All these black lines you see on here, the little skinny, skinny lines, I'm just using a number two liner here.

Roll to a point and see all these little lines around the ends of these feathers.

Bluejays are a handful to paint, they have a lot of little distinct markings on 'em.

Where a cardinal is just red with a black face, these bluejays have so many little markings on 'em.

So this is gonna be a two part project, I'm gonna break this down into two episodes so I can do a nice job for ya.

Didn't wanna rush through it, I figured the reason you're tuned in and watching is you want to learn, so I didn't wanna breeze through it and leave everybody in the dark.

So, see all those lines count, you're gonna wanna do all the little, oop, all the little lines through here.

Notice I'm making them really thin.

Speaking of thin, thin paint will give you thin lines, that's why I'm using a little bit of thinner, excuse me, a little bit of water to thin this paint down.

I'm rolling it to a point and not a lot of paint in the brush when I do the skinniest lines.

Now see if I, I'll practice over here just to show you.

If I use just the tip of the brush with a very light touch, I can get razor thin lines.

If I bear down too hard with a brush like this, you're gonna get much heavier lines.

so it's all, all hinges on how thin your paint is and how heavy of a hand you have.

So, once you get all your lines established, like I said, don't put a heavy outline around the outside of the bird, this is still just my graphite, you don't want that to show with a heavy outline like a coloring book by the time you're done, it's hard to get rid of that outside line if you leave it really dark and dominant and solid.

But all these ones inside, you're gonna do this and just make 'em kinda jittery and feathery, all of these lines, all these markings that you transfer, the beak, the eye, every bit of it, his leg.

By the time you get done with that, which will take a little while, I would say a half an hour, you'd wanna leave yourself ample time to do it, you're gonna end up with this.

This will be dry at this point, now you could let that air dry for 15 or 20 minutes, should be good, it'll dry by evaporation because it's acrylic, the water evaporates away.

Or you could hit it with a hair dryer and be done with it in two minutes, either/or, let it dry completely.

Make sure you rinse your brush out with water.

Now I notice I put this brush right back in the water, so it doesn't dry out.

From there, I'm gonna take wide masking tape.

Now this is inch and a half tape, you could use a different width, wider or narrower, but you have to put enough strips onto to accommodate it.

I'm gonna tape this out.

If you can imagine trying to paint that background around that bird, it would be next to impossible for one and it'll be very tedious for another thing.

So, see I'm just gonna overlap these strips just enough where I don't get bleed between 'em.

I got just maybe an eighth of an inch, 16th of an inch between those strips where they're overlapped.

I gotta put one more little piece here for his beak.

If you've painted with me before you know that I tape a lot, tape is a very important tool in my painting arsenal.

I use tape all the time, it's very handy, makes my job easy.

So you wanna burnish that down all the way around.

From there I'm gonna take a sharp utility knife, craft knife with a number 11 blade, that nice, long pointed one.

And I'm going to come in and carefully trim away everything that's not the bird.

I'm using a canvas panel here, if you're using a stretched canvas, that will work.

You just gonna use a light touch, don't cut through your canvas, it can be done, I do it all the time on stretch canvas too.

See if I carefully trim away all this extra tape, the bird will be completely covered up.

So I'm gonna block him right out completely and then I can freely put the background in over the top.

So I'll finish this trimming and I'll be right back.

(soft music) My one inch texture brush is not on your supply list but if you have it and you want a little more texture than what the fan brush will give you, you can use this as well for your branches and your snow.

You'll see that gives you a little bit more of a texture, which is a nice effect.

There I've trimmed out the bird so he's completely covered and blocked out, now I can freely put the background in.

That was it for the acrylics, now we're gonna switch over to oils.

For oil colors today, on my pallette, I have cadmium red light hue, cerulean blue, ultramarine blue, sap green cadmium yellow pale hue, ivory black and titanium white.

I have a little bit of white base coat, oil-based medium here and some clear glazing medium, which we will use on the bird later, which I will get into when we get to that point.

For those of you who know me at all, you know I love to paint birds, I've always loved painting birds.

I'm gonna share with you some recent ones that I've done.

I love chickadees, I have several feeders set up in my yard, so I'm always feeding the birds.

I was checking this morning, I have three dozen gold goldfinches out there this morning, eating my thistle seed.

So I love birds, I've always loved birds.

Whether they're birds of prey like an eagle or a chickadee and songbirds.

Here's my little friends, the finches I was just talking about, the goldfinches, I get a lot of those.

So I really love to paint birds.

I can remember back in second and third grade when us kids would get a chance to down to the school library, all the other kids were taking out the kiddie books, I was bringing home these great, big John James Audubon, thick volumes of all the bird paintings and I was fascinated with them, then and I still am.

I used to pore through those books and look and say, oh my God, look at all the details, somebody actually painted those.

Little did I know, (laughs) I should have seen the handwriting on the wall, that someday I'd end up doing it.

Okay, I've got this all taped out.

As far as masking tape, people always ask me, what tape do I use?

It's not any specific tape, this is just stuff I get from the local hardware store.

It doesn't have to be anything special, just something that's gonna stick and keep the paint from seeping underneath.

Okay, for brushes today, I'm using a two inch scenery brush, a number three fan brush, a number six round brush, a number two liner, which is the same one I used for that acrylic underpainting a moment ago, but now I've washed it out with soap and water, so it's good for oil.

A number two detailed script liner and a number two long script liner.

Okay, so from here I'm gonna take my two inch scenery brush with a little bit of white base coat.

And near the center, you'll notice there's a nice, warm glow in here, like there's some sunlight coming through the atmosphere in between the tree branches and whatnot.

I'm just gonna put a circle on here about the size of a pie plate, I'm not gonna do the whole outer fringes, I want it to stay a little darker on the outer edges.

So I'm simply gonna put this in more towards the center, like this, scrub it right in, put it on very thin.

Notice I don't have to paint around the bird, that would be very difficult and hard, make us say things we probably shouldn't say.

From there, I'm gonna take a little touch of the cadmium red light, I do have a little bit of that orangey flavor in there, you can go as light or as dark with that as you want.

I'm gonna start out fairly light, this is a very potent color, this cad red light.

So you'll see I'm mixing it into the white that's left in my brush.

I'll come back, put the yellow in over the top.

I'm gonna pour a little more orange in this one, more peach than this one's got.

You'll see this one had it in there but some of it got nosed out.

I'll just put a little more peach in here just for the sake of the argument, it's all good.

It's whatever colors you wanna use in your own painting.

Painting is very personal, it doesn't have to be anything more than what you want it to be.

And I will come back in just a couple of minutes and put some yellow back in there.

I got a brush bristle shedding there, just flick those off.

It's common for brushes to shed, 'cause we're always scrubbing with 'em.

I was telling my students if I grab you by the ankles and rub your hair on the floor that hard, your hair would shed off too.

Okay, from here I'm gonna take a little bit of the cerulean blue into some of that red.

If it gets a little too dark, I could put a little of this white base coat or some of the titanium white, either/or.

I'm looking for something that's kind of a blue-gray, this one's kinda very blueish.

And I'm just gonna go with what I feel today, I'm gonna check that and see what I think.

That's not too bad, I can live with that, I like it.

I wanna do the different blue than what the bird is, notice it's not exactly the same shade of blue and this is all just gonna be background stuff.

Now see this area of the canvas is not wet, I didn't put base coat there 'cause I want this color to stay the color that I put on there, I don't want it to lighten with the base coat.

So it's gonna be dry, so I really have to scrub it in.

And I'm gonna go around the perimeter of that peach color, so I really have to scrub to work that in.

It's dry, the canvas is dry, so it's like applying the base coat in the first place, which scrubs on a little harder, only now I have color in it.

(easel knocking) Easel's making a racket here, so I'll hold that clamp down a little bit.

Now I don't wanna just paint a circle around that, I want it to just radiate inward or the peach radiate outward, whichever way you wanna say it.

But have it just be all uneven.

What is it known as?

A mottled background, M-O-T-T-L-E-D.

If you go to the photography studio, they sit you down in front of that big, swirly curtain with all the stuff, like this.

Just a out of focus background, it's not really meant to represent anything too specific, this background.

Now see this is a little grayer, if you prefer a little bluer like this one, you would have used more blue and you actually could have snuck a little bit of your ultramarine blue in there.

I don't ever try to duplicate the same painting here for you, I show you what I do but I allow the color choices to be yours, that makes it unique to you.

Okay, I'm just gonna sit that brush down.

Gonna take the number three fan brush.

If I take a little bit of white and yellow, I wanna brighten it up towards the middle there a little bit.

I'm just gonna randomly scrub this in, I'll work it out into the peach.

I'll try to save some of that peach so I won't walk it out quite as far.

That's what happened here, I put the yellow in, I kinda nosed the peach out a little more.

So I'll try to use a little more restraint here.

I just want a nice, brighter glow on that middle.

If I wipe the brush off, I can feather these edges into the peach and just let 'em kinda disappear.

If I walk this out into that blue, yellow and the blue, it's gonna turn green in that transition.

Which we're gonna have some green in there anyway, so it really wouldn't be a big deal, but just something to be aware of.

And if by chance I don't want it quite that yellow, I could take a little bit of this red.

Cad red light, mix it into the yellow and I could kind of alter that a little bit, so it's not quite so yellow.

It all depends on the colors you personally wanna use and what you like, there's no right or wrong in this.

Okay, that'll give me a nice background, see the bird will be dark against that, so it gives us a nice contrast, that's the whole point of putting that in like that.

I can come back with this brush now.

And lightly just kinda dust over the whole thing, notice I didn't have to wash the brush, I simply wiped it off a little bit and if you just use a light touch, you get that nice, soft subtle glow in the middle.

Okay, I'll sit that brush down to the side.

I wanna create the suggestion and impression, some branches hanging inward.

I'm gonna swish this brush out, I have just ordered a mineral spritz over here to clean my brush.

Swish that out and dry it off.

And I'm gonna come in it with kind of a green for a branch color.

I can into the same little puddle of blue that I had on my palette, will be fine.

If I take sap green, a little ultramarine blue, I like lean it more a of blue-green, for fir trees, maybe a little white.

If it's a little too green for my taste, I can put just a little speck of the red.

Red is the complimentary color to green.

So it will gray it and dull it.

You won't take much red.

And again, I'm just getting the color I like, I want something a little bit blue-greenish.

The word on the street is blue is my favorite color, you know that, right?

You know I'm gonna lean my green towards blue.

Gonna put a little bit of paint.

Now I know this color is darker than the one I used in here and that's fine, it'll show up better for you.

I'm gonna go for it.

And I'm just creating the impression and suggestion, some branches hanging in there.

I'm thinking fir tree, needle trees.

And see it doesn't take much, it's gonna look a little harsh here at first, but I'm gonna come back and soften it.

I wanna kind of put it around on either side and essentially, kinda frame the bird in a little bit.

And you'll see by putting darker on the outside it brings the viewers eye towards the middle of the painting where I want it to be.

Make sure they all end at different levels, don't have 'em all come in like on the same line where somebody took a weed whacker and cut those off.

Do they still call those weed whackers?

They used to back when they first come out, I think they call them string trimmers now.

Weed whacker sounds a lot nicer, more interesting.

But anyway, you get the point.

Okay, I'm gonna take this and bring it a little bit in here.

It's okay if it goes behind the bird a little bit, it's an overlap, it'll bring the bird forward and make these look like they're further behind.

Just steer around the bird, we taped them out for a reason.

For all we care, right now he's not even there right now.

We're talking about the background, not the bird.

If you run out of color, just mix a little more.

If it's not a dead ringer for what you had, that's all good, won't matter.

Notice I'm leaving some negative space in that so they can breath and the wind can blow through them a little bit.

Don't make it too solid, we're gonna actually lay some suggestions of snow on that too.

Okay, I don't like the way this is laid out, I'm gonna bring some of this in towards the middle a little more just to make it more uneven.

I don't want both sides doing the same thing.

Okay, I think that's gonna work.

I'm gonna swish this brush out and I'm gonna come back and just soften that a little bit.

To soften it I'm gonna do the same exact thing I just did with the brush, I'm just not gonna use any paint on it at this point.

So the brush is clean and dry and especially on these perimeters where it overlaps into the sky.

You'll see that if I just pounce it softens, it makes it a little blurry and out of focus.

That's called depth of field, this gets a little blurry in the background, which shoves it into the background a little more.

And then I'll work my way back and soften the whole thing in general.

But the main thing I wanted to attack, when the brush is clean is this edge right here.

See once I go back into this dark color, I'm picking up a lot of dark color.

So by the time I come over to this side, I may wanna think about washing my brush out again really quickly.

Essentially, at this point, I wanna be blending.

If there's paint on your brush, you're painting, you're just scattering more paint around.

If there's not paint on your brush, you're blending.

Right now I don't wanna be blending.

But if you compare this side now to that side, see how this is softer and this one's still coarse?

So I just wanna soften that out.

I will take a moment here just to wash the brush again, just to be safe.

Happiness is a clean brush.

Especially when you're blending.

So I'm gonna do the same thing on this edge.

Now this is on the tape, so if it looks like I leave that area and I forgot it, it's not that I forgot it, I can see that it's on the tape, so it won't matter.

I'm kinda lazy, I only paint where I need to, if I don't have a need to do it there, I won't do it there.

See I wanna soften everything out of focus a little bit and then we'll lay some snow on here.

All right, I want it a little softer and I like how this is vague and it just kinda disappears and you lose sight of it, I kinda really like that.

So I'm gonna do that on this one too.

If I just keep pouncing and blending that edge away, it'll just disappear.

I want this all pushed into the background.

Okay, it's looking pretty good for what I want.

From there, I'm gonna swish the brush out again and I wanna come in with something of an off white, kinda leaning blueish.

I want the viewer to think snow, but it's snow in the background, more in the shadows.

So I'm not gonna paint it pure white.

Pure white in here would just really compete.

Watch this, I'm gonna do this, I put a little white there, notice how it just steals the show right away from the bluejay.

And I know you're all thinking, oh my Lord, look what he did.

Well, this is dry, so if you just take a little dab of thinner, damp, that wipes right off, no harm done.

But that's the best way to be able to show you what I was describing.

So I don't wanna go too bold and too bright.

So if I take white and a little bit of ultramarine blue, there's my favorite color again.

I can put a little bit of that base coat with it if I wanted to.

If I got some there, it'll thin it down a little bit.

Notice I'm gonna tap my pallette with the brush and open the bristles up.

And I can kinda distinguish some particular branches in here, where you can actually see the branches.

I'm gonna go just a tad lighter than that even.

It's gonna hinge on how dark your background is, mine got really pale right in where I softened it.

So see you gotta go dominant enough where it's gonna show, don't go pure white.

And I'm just randomly, kinda thinking there's branches with snow on 'em hanging in there.

It's gonna take a fair amount of paint on your brush, notice I keep tapping, getting more paint.

You can't do it with a dry brush, notice that it's leaving an actual, visible texture.

Leave a lot of the negative space, leave the dark showing through there, the dark is what gives it the depth and looks like you could reach in between those branches.

All right, it's looking pretty good.

I need to do the same thing on this side, obviously, the branches are gonna be hanging in this way.

As you'll notice, I kinda let 'em droop in more at an angle, so it looks like they're kinda heavily laden with snow.

I'm running out of paint here, so I'm just gonna mix up a little more.

Same color, just ultramarine blue and white.

See that'll be a really nice background and I know, like I said, this looks really dark right there, but that's where that tape is on the bird, so it's not gonna matter, but I'll wipe that off.

Just so you feel better about it.

And I'll feel better about it too.

At least I can see what's going on there.

All right.

If I do it sparingly and I don't get carried away, I can come back with a little bit lighter value in a couple spots.

If I do that, I'd wanna go more towards the middle of the canvas, because that would be more eye-catching, it'll tend to bring the viewers eye in.

So I can actually wipe this off and if I mix it right next door to the color I just had, I'm just gonna use a little more white in that mixture.

Lighten it a little bit, it's nowhere near pure white, but it's lighter than what I just had.

So especially here towards the middle, you'll see that if I go a little lighter in a couple spots, it kinda starts drawing your eye into the middle of the canvas.

I'm kinda creating a center of interest for my subject, which it will be the bird, but this is the center of interest around him.

And you'll wanna do it subtly, don't get carried away.

Okay, that's gonna finish out this first part of this lesson, make sure you catch the next half.

When I come back, we're gonna start putting some of the branches in and reveal the bird and we'll develop him.

And we'll send him on his merry way.

Until then, stay creative and keep painting.

- [Announcer] All 13 episodes of Painting with Wilson Bickford, Series 5 are now available on DVD or blu-ray in one box set for $35 plus $4.95, shipping and handling.

Or learn the techniques used to paint winter blues, evening choir practice or majestic mountain with the in depth Wilson Bickford Paint Smart, Not Hard series of instructional DVDs.

Order online or watch or download directly to your computer or mobile device.

More information at wpbstv.org/painting.

(mellow music) (dramatic music)