• Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Art Supplies
  • Affiliate Disclosure

Art Instruction For Beginners - Online Art Lessons

  • Lessons By Medium
    • Painting
      • Acrylic Painting
        • Acrylic Pouring
      • Oil Painting
      • Watercolor Painting
        • Angela Fehr Watercolor Lessons
      • Genesis Heat Set Paints
      • Mixed Media
      • Egg Tempera
      • Encaustic
      • GOUACHE
    • Digital Art/Graphic Design
      • Adobe Illustrator Tutorials
      • Adobe Photoshop Tutorials
      • Autodesk Sketchbook Tutorials
    • Drawing
      • Colored Pencil
      • Crayon
      • Pencil & Charcoal
      • Pastels
      • Pen & Ink
      • Perspective
      • How to Doodle
      • Comic Book Art Tutorials
    • Print Making
  • Lessons By Subject
    • Animal & Wildlife
    • Art Therapy
    • Color Theory
    • Composition
    • Figure Drawing & Painting
    • How To Draw Cartoons
    • Landscape/Plein Air
    • Painting & Drawing Flowers
    • Chinese Brush Painting
    • Portrait Painting & Drawing
    • Seascape
    • Still Life
  • Lessons by Style
    • Abstract Art
    • Pop Art
    • Impressionism
  • Resources
    • Art Instruction Videos
    • Art Supplies
    • Books/Ebooks
    • Home Study Courses
    • Software
  • Artist FAQs
  • Creative AI Studio
Home » Watercolor Lesson – Learn How to Paint a Bluebird From a Photo

Watercolor Lesson – Learn How to Paint a Bluebird From a Photo

April 23, 2010 by Ralph S 10 Comments

About Karen

I am a self taught artist who loves to paint, and, if you can learn from loving it, that’s what I did. I am now living in Northeast Oklahoma, but I was brought up in Northern Wisconsin. My favorite things to paint are snow scenes and trees. I really like to see a beginner paint one of my designs in their style even though they don’t even know they have a style.

I think painting is great therapy. I have also made many new friends through my painting. I frequently teach a watercolor class at the local Vocational Technical College. I have also taught at several decorative painting conventions and chapter events.

To learn more about Karen and to view more of her work, please visit her website below:

https://www.karenfrye.com/


Beginner Watercolor Lesson – Learn How to Paint a Bluebird From a Photo By Karen Frye

My Palette

My palette of colors for this painting is: Ultra Marine Blue, Burnt Sienna, Neutral Tint (neutral tint is a transparent black), and Raw Umber. You can use most any colors and it will work fine. The white on the bird is simply the white of the paper that is left white.

Below is the reference photo I used to create this painting:

The photo below is a simple sketch I created for the painting from the reference photo above:

Watercolor Lesson - Bluebird Sketch

Transfer sketch to your watercolor paper. For best results use 140# watercolor paper preferably paper that is bought in sheets and separated in smaller sheets to fit your frame.

Watercolor Tutorial Bluebird Painting

Begin painting by wetting the whole bird with clean water. Wet, but not puddles. Base the bird with a light wash matching the colors in the picture.

Again wash the whole bird matching colors, this time using a darker value of each color. This time, wash in the fence post the bluebird is standing on with a light wash of raw umber.

Watercolor Bluebird Lesson

In this step, you will define the areas of the bird again matching colors with again a darker value of the colors. The eye should have a small white highlight. The bluebirds’s feet are a
neutral tint and the post is detailed with neural tint. (see photo)

This is a very beginner project. Please enjoy painting it.

Filed Under: Animal & Wildlife, Watercolor Painting

Comments

  1. John Ulman says

    April 23, 2010 at 8:05 pm

    The sketch might have been detailed more.
    The finished watercolor needed more contrast on the head and back.
    However the lesson was good for beginner.

  2. armand says

    April 24, 2010 at 1:34 am

    Hi,that demo is very interesting.Is it possible to use watercolour pencils to do this drawing? very good work,thanks very much .Armand

  3. Omar Emmons says

    April 25, 2010 at 11:25 am

    Great work! Love a good watercolor, so clean and pure.
    Of course all medium is good in the hands of a craftsman

  4. Sharon says

    May 6, 2010 at 10:59 am

    Thank you for the lesson. I painted the bird and it turned out great for a beginner like me! Next time could you give the colors of the paints you use? Thank you.

  5. Abel says

    May 12, 2010 at 10:43 pm

    Thanks for the step-by-step! I’d love to get painting some of the birds in the garden, this will give me a head start.

  6. Jenifer Goffe says

    May 13, 2010 at 11:58 am

    I found it quite helpful. I enjoy watercolors and will certainly give your method a try. Thanks.

  7. Airee Williams says

    May 13, 2010 at 3:28 pm

    VERY good and this is a good tutorial. I have been wanting to learn how to paint for the longest using traditional mediums. Right now, I am a digital/visiual artist that uses digital paint tools. It is a WHOLE lot harder than drawing by hand, trust me. Good work!

  8. LORETTA says

    May 26, 2010 at 4:42 am

    YOUR PAINTINGS ARE LOVELY… I HOPE SOMEDAY, TO DO AS WELL….I ACTUALLY HAVE ONLY BEEN PAINTING A LITTLE OVER A YEAR, SELF-TAUGHT…AND USING ACRYLICS…I WOULD LIKE TO GET INTO THE WATERCOLOUR PAINTING….I TOOK A BEGINNER CLASS AND I WAS NOT IMPRESSED… HOWEVER, I WILL GIVE IT ANOTHER TRY,…I AM MOST INTERESTED IN LANDSCAPES/ANIMALS/AND FLOWERS ….

  9. Tricia says

    March 5, 2014 at 6:17 pm

    Thank you for such a great tutorial. I have wanted to learn watercolor techniques.
    Your work is awesome! Many happy times painting. This bird is my first. Would like to try a butterfly next.

  10. Ana says

    January 2, 2017 at 4:53 pm

    Buen trabajo
    Sobre todo para quien se inicia
    Sería interesanta saber si utilizas pomos o pastillas y que papel

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Copyright © 2025 2015 ·News Pro Theme