My 5 Best Tips for Painting Ravishing Roosters

Roosters! Those sumptuous colors, that distinctive attitude.

 

Have you wanted to paint these colorful birds but gotten bogged down in where to start? Feeling overwhelmed by all those feathers? I have a few tips that make it a little easier to tackle this popular painting subject.

 

 

1. Start with a great photo

 

A picture that shows distinct lights and darks will make your job much easier. Angled light is more dramatic, either early morning or late afternoon are the best times to camera stalk your favorite chickens. Use a photo that clearly shows the level of detail that you want to be able to paint.

 

You can easily see the difference between these photos.. In photo 1 the chickens appear flat compared to the second photo of the rooster.

 

 

 

                                                

 

The second image is also in better focus than the first one and it’s much easier to see the details.  

 

 

2. Pay attention to angles and proportions.

 

In photo 3, notice how significantly smaller the head is than the body. Surprising isn't it?

 

When painting the rooster on a canvas, I give myself a perimeter and then draw in an axis for the main shapes. Birds rest at characteristic angles, so start with trying to capture posture, body angle and attitude.  From there,  break the form up, keeping proportions in mind.

As when painting a human portrait, a portrait there are key proportions to get correct. Especially notice where the eye lies on the head, it is slightly different for different birds. Also watch the distance between the eye and the beak.

 

 

3. Look for the large shapes first.

 

Squint and simplify. In the example below I have outlined the major dark shapes. I don’t worry about a small dark shape in the middle of a mostly mid value area, because I am simplifying first.

 

 

You can do the same with the light area

 

In the first this stage of the painting, you are trying to create the dimension and form of the bird.  Shape and form comes first. Remember  that you are painting shapes and values, not individual feathers. So, before you can think about feathers,  create the form.

 

 

4. Indulge your love of color

 

Now is the time to break out all those luscious colors that you couldn’t resist buying but that don’t make it into your everyday palette. For me that’s  thalo blue, thalo turquoise, cad yellow green and diox purple.

 

My normal palette consists of  

Titanium White                                   

Cad Yellow

Yellow Ochre                           

Cad red

Sap Green                 

Alizarin Crimson              

Ultramarine Blue             

Raw Umber   

 

 

5. Details come last

 

Set up your painting with darker and duller colors and then go in for the kill. Now is the time to concentrate on the strokes that will create feathers.

 

Painting detail is like icing a cake. You wouldn't put the frosting on before you baked the cake would you?

 

Don’t try to paint every single feather or your bird will look stiff and you will drive yourself batty.

The feather direction is important so I establish direction in the way I use my brush in the specific area:

 

Downy feathers close to body, use short “fluffy” strokes

 

Overlapping feathers are characteristic on neck, back, shoulders, breast

 

Flight feathers are longer and often the spine will show. I establish the spine with a chisel edge on my brush.

 

Use light value (not white) and warm against cool tones to help create the illusion of light. It is most interesting to see a variety of color temps next to each other, for example a warm blue next to cool blue.

 

Need a demo?

Watch the replay of  Let's Paint Roosters on my Facebook Livestream https://www.facebook.com/LinaFerraraArt/videos/239213857426305/