TOUCAN - Paint Realistic Watercolour and BIRDS

This short lecture looks at our complete list of materials needed to complete this painting. The palette is a little larger than usual for courses, but with such a colourful subject, its a little unavoidable this time... so lets embrace it, play with colour and learn more about working with a broader selection of pigments

This lecture walks you through every facet of drawing our Toucan up, ready to paint. Its an easy enough process, but its a craft in itself that needs attention, creating a solid foundation and a clear pathway forwards to painting. This is part 1

Part 2 of the Drawing Up process lecture takes you through the beak element, completing your drawing ready for painting

Ive broken down the rendering stages of the yellow toucan head section into three general layers to help you see the steps and pathway through this element. Layer 1 is super simple, peeling it back to a single colour and a complete coverage of Winsor Lemon in this large area of the head... easy huh! Lets take a look.

Layer 2 of our yellow head area shifts to an ever so slightly richer tone with the addition of a new colour, developing our mids in textural layers to develop form and interest in our toucan face. One new colour... the rest continues in the same way, easy! Lets take a look 

Layer 3 takes us through the final stages of rendering this area of yellow, dealing with our darks and detail to complete the face of our toucan. 

The eye of our toucan is a huge part of the lesson challenge, objective and point of learning in this course. Its a tricky element that is critical so it can feel overwhelming enough to shy away from the subject all together, but this lecture starts walking you through the process of rendering the eye in as manageably and simply, as possible... for a realistic style. One step at a time is the approach, so lets jump in and take this bull by the horns together. You might be surprised! This is Part 1, talking about materials, our plan of attack and laying down our foundation layer.

And now, to complete the eye. Think baby steps and whispers

To make sure were all set and prepared for the next section properly, lets start with taking a look at our plan forwards, our materials and setting up our palette.

Starting out on the toucans head, the first layer of wash is large, rich and textural with plenty of subtle colour shifts in the mix. Theres a bit to think about but its not too hard with a clear plan and a little direction. It also helps to know that as as long as you get a little movement and richness in, its hard to go too wrong. The main focus here that I want to teach you more about is manipulating your wash with timing. Being so rich and dark... this is the perfect playground to learn on!

Layer 2 shifts technique and continues to enrich our colour and tones into our mids, developing texture and interest with it. Our colours are simple, applying layers of subsequent wash to the existing in stages. 

Finally we come to the last stage of this section, bringing it all together with a few more touches and the ever important addition of the darks. 

The bill of our Toucan has many colour changes, areas, sizes and textures to consider, so being prepared is important and will help you succeed more than you may even realise. This lecture looks at our materials, setting your palette up ready to go, and talks about the start of our plan to give you a clear direction forward into layer 1. 

The beak is the primary element of this illustration of course, and theres a fair bit involved, so Ive broken Layer 1 into sections covering the process of laying down our initial wash. Its not so hard though. Take it one area, one step at a time in this deconstruction, reconstruction process, understanding how you can approach such a complex element easily and effectively.

Continuing on with our initial layer of wash, we tackle each area and its colour individually, slowly stitching them all together like a wonderful patchwork. This lesson walks you through the next areas and colours.

The final part of layer 1s lesson takes you through the last of our areas and colours to the end of our lights and wash

Our second layer, dealing with our mid tones, is in 2 stages, walking you through the reducing areas, intensifying colour and tone, shifting techniques and subtleties in this stage of rendering our Toucan beak. Still, youll discover Ive been able to brake it down into simple areas, single, manageable steps and simple colour use for you, and youll see, even this complex subject can be approached practically and effectively. This lecture covers developing our mids in our yellows and the red tip of the toucan bill further, ready to receive our darks.

The second lesson around layer 2 of the beak completes this mid tone stage of each remaining colour, preparing this element for the darks.

Layer 3 deals with our darks in tiny areas, bringing richness and impact to our painting and a beautiful close to this Toucan illustration challenge.

And so weve reached the conclusion of this painting and course, so full of challenges and learning around our wonderful subject and medium. I hope that youve enjoyed the process and have managed to create a beautiful Toucan painting for yourselves... or that youre feeling enriched and better equipped from this lesson to help you keep growing in the very least! Its a craft. It takes practice, but this tutorial sure covers a lot of ground to help you along. Thank you so much for sharing this colourful journey with me, take care and happy painting... I shall see you in the wash.