Paint a parrot portrait, the Fearless way!
How would you paint a watercolor painting of this blue and gold parrot?
"Pretty parrot" (c) Elise Beattie 2025
What painterly choices would you make, in order to create a stunning portrait of this beautiful bird? Read on, to learn about how I created my new transparent watercolor on 140 lb cold press Kilamanjaro paper.
When I teach my "Fearless Painting" classes, I teach my students that painting with watercolors is made easier when an artist makes a plan of action regarding how they want to approach their art project.
I like to begin with choosing my colors and making choices about what "values" of light to dark live where inside of my inspirational photo.
With my decision- making process, I create a numerical list ontop of my black & white photo.
Number 1 represents my lightest lights, #2 is the number that I ascribe to my next slightly darker regions. Than there is #3 ,4 and finally the numbers 5 and 6 which represent my rich, saturated darkest-darks.
The paint colors, by Daniel Smith colors, that I will choose to use for this painting are:
New gamboge yellow - a warm temperatured yellow that leans towards an orangee yellow, pthalo blue (green) -a warm temperature- staining blue, Permanent alizarin crimson- a cool purplish- staining red. These are the only hues that I will use in this work. With these three primary hues I will be able to mix all of the hues that I see in my original photo.
I begin each project with a simple pencil drawing of the basic shapes that I want to include in my artwork. I focus on drafting the bird, realistically making note of the face, beak, feathers shapes etc.
I begin with a drawing using a 3 b pencil.
My initial painting steps include mixing a very diluted puddle of paint. I lightly dampen my paper with clean water and then I drop in diluted -fluid water color paint, as desired.By diluted, I mean a ratio of @10% pigment to 90% water! I always prepare my paint on my "Masterson" palette and then stroke this mixture onto my paper.
Step 1: For this work, I began by painting in my pthalo blue onto the feathers and new gamboge on the parrots breast.
Step 2: Additional layers of watercolor allow me to
"build-up" the shadow- shapes as I create light and dark passages throughout this composition. The shadows are those
areas where light does not fall,because the bird's form blocks the light from
above. I can see, in my photo reference, that there are shadows along the wings and on the fence railings.
Step 3: I also work on the bird's feather textures. Layer by layer, I paint with
pthalo blue to slowly intensify the feather's colors, always keeping aware of the somewhat angled-vertical "direction" that the feathers are laying in.
I move back and forth studying my inspirational photo and comparing it to my painting. As I work, I decide where I want details painted on dry paper,such as the parrot and where I want to drop in washes using a loose, more abstract method of painting, such as in the background.
In the background, after dampening my paper with clean water, I brushed, splattered and dribbled mixtures of my yellows, blues and reds. Because the paper is damp my mixtures flow together.
Step 4: Subsequent steps include deepening the
"saturation" meaning the intensity of, for example the brilliant blue
feathers, the golden yellows and vivid orange colors on the bird's breast.
Step5: Time to determine what I want to do in order to tie the foreground and background to create a pleasing painting! To do this I use technology to help me paint!
How do I use technology? Our cell phones are great tools. I probably use my Android phone more as a camera than a phone! I take pictures on my travels for inspiration and as a painting tool to capture my painting steps or to help me to better "see" and understand what I want to do next.
Step 6: Frequently, I use my cell phone as a way to create a black and white "value" study. Inside each of our cell-phone photos, we have design options.
a) By clicking on our phones "EDIT" button, I can, then, open options to adjust elements in my original pictures.
b)Next look & click on the "ADJUST" option...then....
c) Look for an option that says "Saturation" . This is a slide bar that will allow you to slide the bar from 0 to 100. By sliding this bar in one direction you will see your photos become almost neon...Slide the bar in the opposite direction and your will see your photo become a black and white picture, like in my photo. Finally, I click on my "save a copy" option, so that I/you don't lose or permantly change your original photo.
...Viola, I now have a working "value" study, which will help me to make future painting choices.
With my painting's "value study photo" I am now able to decide if I want to "push" the saturation of my colors or see and adjust the range of values in my painting.
Step 7: At this time, my goal is to bring balance between the bold colors & values seen in the parrot versus the values and colors of the fence and the background. Consequently, I am going to choose to "push" (think deepen/darken) the values of the darkest spots on the parrot's wings . To do this, I will mix a deep,dark puddle (@ 80%pigment+20%water) of pthalo blue +permanent alizarin crimson with a small amount of new gamboge yellow. This recipe will create a rich, dark and saturated mixture that because my"recipe" calls for more blue than the other colors leans towards a blue/black. Mind you, I am still working with diluted paint, but now my ratio of pigment increase in comparison to the amount of water that I am using to dilute my color "recipes". I am going to paint this blue/black mixture onto the darkest areas of the wings at the top and underside , the eye markings and the underneath the beak.
I believe that I also need to intensify the fence post's colors, by painting another layer of a mixture of brown )made with a puddle of 70% crimson+20% yellow+ 5% or smaller amount of blue) . This will create a reddish brown that is perfect for the posts.
Additional strokes of a mixture of crimson and yellow will make a bolder orangee/golden yellow, which I can then brush over the parrot's chest to intensify the feathers. On this painting, my final background work, will be to drop some wet , juicy watercolor paint mixtures onto the damp paper, allowing the diluted puddles to move via gravity across the back.
Ultimately, in all of our paintings, we want to remember to unite and balance the values and color saturation of foreground, mid & background together, in our art. What do you think? Have I been successful? Are the colors and values in the parrot's form in balance with the fence railings and flowing colors of vegtation in back?
11 x 14 transparent watercolor on paper
Thank you for visiting my blog and painting with me. If you are interested in learning more about how to paint the "Fearless way" I invite you to visit my website, where you can learn about all of my continuing education
in-person and online Fearless classes
as well as
my full day Fearless painting workshops coming this fall 2025 :
Happy painting, everyone!
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