WALKTHROUGH: Painting a Smoky Crow
Surface: Museum board (essentially an acid free wood board) prepared with 2 coats of Daniel Smith titanium white ground and 2 coats of QoR. This board is very non-absorbent and I find I have to put a lot of extra ground on it to make it workable.
Paints: A hand mixed "black" made of Daniel Smith Burgundy Yellow Ochre, Daniel Smith Prussian Blue and Daniel Smith Carbazole violet. The yellow highlights are Daniel Smith lemon yellow and there is a bit of Pearl Ex Turquoise pigment/Daniel Smith Manganese blue mixture for some of the highlights in the feathers as well as Daniel Smith white for the eye and any small white highlights.
Brushes: Princeton Velvetouch synthetic brushes in sizes 0 and 20/0 as well as a very worn out Hwahong round brush in size 1.
I began by taking my very fuzzy size 1 Hwahong brush and painting on washes of my shadow shade (my version of black/gray) I blocked in some basic rendering during this phase as well.
Something to note is that the brush I was using felt just a bit too big and fuzzy for this crow, but working with a brush that is slightly too large sometimes helps me move more quickly without overthinking the initial phases of a piece. I also like the fuzzy textures my old worn out brush creates.
I continued to block in and somewhat refine the rendering going back and forth between my size 1 worn out Hwahong brush and my size 1 Princeton brush.
Although I was working with just the hand made "black" at first, I began to add highlights of lemon yellow at this point. The black itself tends to create fun little gradations of purples and blues because of the different paints it is made of.
I lifted away some paint to create a few extra highlighted feathers on the body and wings and began to work more with my more detailed size 1 Princeton brush. I also added some blue highlights to the bird and used my size 0 brush to add even finer details such as the feathers on the face.
For the eye, I used a bit of white watercolour which I also used to create a few small highlights on the feet and in the feathers.
With smoke I love to be really loose. Although I was aiming to paint it in a way that worked with the flow of the crow's body, I also like being really intuitive and free. I like to think of the way smoke twists, turns and dissipates as it stretches into the atmosphere. Keeping the physical movement in mind helps me capture it better. I also regularly use a barely damp brush with clean water on it to brush over certain parts of the smoke, causing it to blend and blur.
You can check out my Instagram reel to see a bit of the smoke painting in action as well.
I hope you enjoyed watching me paint this little crow friend!
~ Aria
