Rodger Scott
artist 27be made on how closely I’ll follow the photograph, the
lighting direction and the size of the painting.
Step One
For this demonstration I will be painting a favourite
bird of mine, a Red Capped Robin. Having selected
a photograph, I draw the bird using grids to help me
keep correct proportions.
Step Two
With all of my paintings, I always start with the
background and work forward. When using watercolour
paper I blend the gouache on the paper directly,
placing dobs of paint directly out of the tube onto the
paper and then push them around with a large brush.
To begin with, I thoroughly wet the paper and
apply colour directly to the surface. Then with a
larger brush I push the colours around so that there
is a rough blend. The brush I normally use for this
is NAM 12 Red Filbert, but any bigger brush should
work just as well, as long as the bristles aren’t too
soft. The colours used on this background are White,
Black, Primrose Yellow, Burnt Umber and Middle
Green, all from Art Spectrum.