The process of drawing a Kingfisher

In this little blog post I want to show and explain how in general I go about a nature artwork. Whether you are just curious how I go about creating my artwork, want to better know about my creative process I hope this helps and you enjoy.

First there is the prep work before starting a piece of art but for the sake of this blog post I won't go into that and instead focus on the process of actually drawing it but know that there were a few steps involved.

So first, I start with a sketch, I like to use a light grey coloured pencil for the sketch, this is down to personal preference. I didn't take a photo of this for 2 reasons, one I forgot and two because it would only show a white page because I use such a light grey that it doesn't show up anyway (I have tried before on a different artwork).

Next I added the background in panpastels (for those for you who don't know what panpastels are they are basically a cross between pigment powder and soft pastels in a disc also know as a pan, this is a very simplistic explanation of them), I only use panpastels for the background if I want a relatively plain or blurred background, if a background was detailed I would just stick to the coloured pencils.

Once, I did the background I started working on the kingfisher and worked from the beak down focussing on the blue feathers first then moved on to the orange feathers and onto the feet.

Next, I moved onto doing the log and add all those details like the cracks, shading and other details. Normally I would work from the background to the foreground meaning I would have done the log before the kingfisher, however this time I felt it would be better doing the kingfisher first rather than the log.

Finally, I do any touch ups that need doing and then I am done, so I signed it and then frame it.

Thank you for reading this little blog post I hope you enjoyed it and enjoyed seeing the process of the kingfisher.