The Cornell Lab Bird Academy › Discussion Groups › How to Paint Birds with Jane Kim › Paint: Finishing Your Barn Swallow
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Bird AcademyBird AcademyShare your work! This forum is a space for you and others taking the course to share, comment, and exchange helpful ideas.You must be enrolled in the course to reply to this topic.
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Jane does such a good job with details. My attempt using watercolors and regular brushes.
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What a mess! Well, it actually looks better in the photo than in reality. However I learnt two things: Don't use canvas because you have it, like me. Paper would have been much easier as the heavy grain made it hard to paint details. Secondly, fine lines just aren't my thing. I also could not work out how Jane was managing to pick up paint on her brush for mixing without muddying the pile that she got it from. So, back to practice....
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Got this course as an early Christmas present and have learned so much from it. The wings transparency drove me crazy but overall I'm happy with how it looks.
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Let's call it done.
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I am a 73 year old woman. Two years ago I took a course that I enjoyed, Nature Journaling with Liz Clayton on the Cornell Bird Academy site. Prior to this I didn't have any experience with drawing or water coloring. I became very interested in drawing birds and plants and fr0m then on would draw most days of the week. Last year, I took Jane's Avocet egg painting course which I really enjoyed. When I saw this course, I thought I would give it a try. This course was very intense for me. I have had very little training in the fundamentals of drawing or painting. I repeated each section of this course at least 5 times or more. I really liked Bird in a Ball. I have made many, many mistakes and corrections but, I was determined to finish. Even though, this was difficult and isn't as perfect as I want, I am grateful for all that I have learned through my errors and Jane's wonderful teaching. This is as good as my painting is going to get at this point. Thank you, Jane.
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Awesome!
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Pretty happy with colors and layers and contrast. This time for a pallet I used drawing paper over the sponge sheet in a Tupperware container - way slower paint drying time now. It seems this technique is between traditional acrylic and watercolor. I didn't put in much in the way of feather texture - maybe next time.
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Well done!
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@Steve Beautiful.
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I love the detail on the head.
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I envy your feathers!!! Nice job!
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I love your feathers!!
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Beautiful!!
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I'm using watercolor (Winsor Newton) instead of acrylics. Keeping track of overlapping feathers was a challenge!
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I especially like how you did the tail, and that you gave your bird a background.
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Those wings were murder!
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:-) I agree! You gave your bird a nice artistic treatment.
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But the barn wood is awesome!
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My image is so dark. I know what you mean about going for lighter tones, Jane.What a heavy hand I have with the paint. I had more subtle tones but dont see them in this reproduction. This was a huge challenge in so many ways and a great bird to learn on.
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I also had to pay extra attention to keep my base layer light so the bird was backlit. Your bird is just flying around on a cloudy day ;-). I like how it looks like the bird is looking right at me.
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This was a challenge for me. I am used to watercolor, and it was difficult not to be able to lift out color. I am not sure that I agree that there are no mistakes with acrylics. I made plenty.
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I think your bird is beautiful.
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@PL I think your bird looks great.
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I love birds in flight and was excited to try this. I never used acrylics before and got so frustrated I pulled out my colored pencils. So the wings are not the transparent beauty I was hoping to achieve. Now that Jane taught me some great techniques, I'll keep trying.
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This is my first formal painting class. It has been challenging, but in a good way. I struggle with brush control, color mixing and paint consistency. Really appreciate how the course is structured and of course Jane's amazing teaching.
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I really like your bird. I especially like the how you painted the colors on the head.
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Thank you so much for this lesson, at times one of frustration, but certainly learned a lot about acrylic paint and water. Totally new to this and was at times pretty heavy handed. Will definitely try this one again after I tackle the cardinal. Looking forward to that. This was a great Christmas gift!
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Nice!
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I am submitting my Bird but am working on another one to improve the first edition. I am an older adult 80 years.My under grad work was in fine art but printing. My masters was in Montessori and Art Education. I have taught in Mexico and Shanghai China.At present; I take painting classes at Schlitz Audubon center in Milwaukee Wisconsin from Jose Acevedo. I am hoping at this time my 'bird' pictures will improve. The work submitted by participants; is wonderful! Janes teaching style is the best. So glad that I signed up for this course even though it is a challenge.
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