Bird Portrait Paintings of Garden Friends

I was in the mood to paint some bird portrait paintings this month. So I did! It’s been a while since I got the acrylic paints out, so decided that would be my medium. And the models for my portraits… well, they are my beloved garden bird ornaments. Plucky, Clucky, Ducky, Doodle and Seaweed. The acrylic paintings are only small, but I took a few photos of my creative process along the way. I’ll share my arty progress below.

My Garden Friends

My garden bird friends tend to appear at pivotal moments. They are sedentary creatures, happy chilling amongst themselves in my garden. They move around from time to time but are generally content to stay in the same place for months on end. Just observing the wildlife, soaking in the nature. Sometimes momentarily repurposing themselves as a perch for a little robin or sparrow.

I think they are appealing and make for interesting portrait models. They’ve inspired some of my previous blog art.

Making an arty start

I set up one of my wooden art boards with five small pieces of square watercolour paper:

Blank watercolour paper prepared for the bird portrait paintings by Ruth Burton Artist.

And then, using a Derwent Graphic 4B pencil, I started to sketch the outlines for my bird portrait paintings. Here’s me drawing Plucky:

Sketch of a pheasant using a Derwent Graphic 4B pencil, by Ruth Burton Artist.

These are the initial sketches for all five birds:

Five bird portrait pencil drawing sketches by Ruth Burton Artist.

Choosing the acrylic paints

Over the years, I’ve found that I like to stick to a limited palette. I think it helps create cohesion in a painting (or in this case, a miniseries of five paintings). This time was no different, but I didn’t make it too difficult for myself. I chose three primary colours and white.

Here’s my paint palette, freshly prepared for a new painting!

A paint palette of fours acrylic paints: titanium white, lemon yellow, brilliant red, ultramarine blue.

I’m using Daler-Rowney acrylic paints in Titanium White (pronounced per Bob Ross pronunciation), Lemon Yellow, Brilliant Red and Ultramarine Blue.

Unless I’m painting watercolours, I like to use acrylic paint because it dries fast and has staying power. These particular Daler-Rowney paints were thick and mixed well so were a pleasure to work with.

The first layer of paint

There was an element of mindfulness painting as I applied these first few layers of paint. I focussed on the sensation of brushing the paint across the paper and allowed myself to enjoy the process.

Here’s me applying the Titanium White to Seaweed with a ProArte Polar 1/4″ flat brush. There’s something more mindful about using a flat brush (for me, anyway). I often prefer the results I can get with a flat paintbrush versus a round paintbrush.

Adding white acrylic paint to the seagull sketch by Ruth Burton Artist.

While I was creating my bird portrait paintings, I was less bothered about trying to make the paint too smooth or neat. I just tried to keep things simple and understated.

Adding more colours

I applied the colours across all five acrylic paintings in stages. Building up layers of paint one colour at a time starting with the lightest. And so after I’d applied the main white layers, I mixed some pale yellows.

Here’s me applying a mixed yellow to Clucky:

Adding yellow acrylic paint to the chicken sketch by Ruth Burton Artist.

And then followed some darker yellows, oranges, reds, browns etc. These are the bird portrait paintings at various stages:

The five bird portrait paintings after the first few layers of acrylic paint, by Ruth Burton.

Bird Portrait Paintings

And these are the finished acrylic paintings. I was keen not to overwork them. I like how I’ve captured their individual personalities. They’re so cute. Hopefully, you like them too: