The male scarlet tanager makes an excellent subject for a painting.
Scarlet tanager birds make great subject matter for paintings with their bright red bodies and contrasting black wings. Ancient Chinese artists were masters at painting birds. Japanese painters carried on the tradition of depicting birds in their natural surroundings. Painting a scarlet tanager combines the genres of landscape and wildlife painting. The most famous painting of a scarlet tanager was by John James Audubon. It was later made into a print published in the "Birds of America" during the 1830s.
Instructions
1. Locate and identify a male scarlet tanager for your painting. Learn their habitats and habits to find them. Contact a local birdwatcher's club for information on where to find scarlet tanagers. Photograph the birds with a telephoto or zoom lens. Draw them from life if they stay still long enough. Use reference photos from the Internet or in books if you don't have tanagers living near you.
2. Practice drawing the bird and its surroundings for your painting's composition using your photographs and sketches. Study the tanager's coloration and anatomy until you can confidently draw it. Draw the scarlet tanager on paper or canvas in preparation for your painting. Relate the bird to its surroundings. Work tree branches and foliage into the picture. Paint the bird in the springtime so you can use flowering trees in the background.
3. Focus your drawing on the bird itself. It must be well drawn in order to be well painted. Sketch in the basic shapes of it's head, body, wings and tail before adding detail. Block in your basic forms using thinned out, light toned colors. Add depth and texture to the background landscape. Define the contours of the bird with your brush. Set up the tonal structure of your picture with broad washes of color.
4. Mix your colors on the palette to match the local colors of the bird and background landscape. Use several different hues, tones and shades of red to depict the brilliant red plumage of the scarlet tanager. Modulate the tone and colors of the paint for a chiaroscuro three-dimensional affect. Establish the direction of light in the picture and use it to correctly place shadows.
5. Add the finishing touches to your picture. Put in the final details of the bird's eyes and beak. Paint in the textures of the feathers with your smallest pointed brush. Add accented highlights last of all, applying tiny touches of color to represent points and patches of reflected sunlight.
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