Paul Beattie Fine Art

This painting is being done with a 30 X 100 cm stretched block canvas. My medium is acrylic.

Firstly I have drawn the basic head and upper wing of the bald eagle with a soft pencil. This is so I do not mark, indent or puncture the canvas.

I have chosen my main colour choice for the sky, Ultramarine blue and Titanium white. I have painted the sky from light to darker starting from the right hand side of the canvas. Doing this creates the direction of light. The brush strokes were all kept as a horizontal strokes. 

The skies clouds have been created with a round hard bristled brush. Using the same colours as in the sky I have scumbled the clouds in with circular motions of the brush tip lightly loaded with colour ( mainly white ). If you have good eye sight you will see I also added a bald eagle in flight in the distance to add depth to the big sky.

Colours used are Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue and Raw Sienna mixes for the beak base but still more outline yet to be defined. Buff Titanium and Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue for the eye.

The basic shadow on the eagles head and neck have been painted with a mix of Ultramarine Blue, Paynes Grey and Titanium White.

Just adding the base colours of the wing and chest feathers. Burnt Sienna and Paynes Grey. I also added some shadows for the white head feathers with Titanium White and Paynes Grey mixes.

I have been working on two areas, the shadow for the feathers on the head of the Eagle and building up the shape and colour of the beak.

The shadows are laid roughly in the direction of the feathers to be painted with a simple mix of Paynes Grey and Titanium White.

The beak has been built up more in definite colour with the use of Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue, Raw Sienna mixed in for darker areas and Titanium White  added for the lighter areas. I am also  working on the full shape of the beak to get it the right shape and length.

I have been working on the beak mainly with a mixture of the colours used above. From the eye to nose is a complex series of feathers and different beak tones.

I have also defined the eye a bit more with some added detail and shaping. I used Buff Titanium with a speck ( bit of paint on the tip of the brush ) of Titanium White and Raw Umber. While still wet, touches of light gray were added for some of the eyes finer detail.

I have been adding feather direction ready for shadows and highlights. All the feather work is done with Paynes Grey and Titanium White. Unfortunately this photo was not taken in the right lighting so the next one I post will have more detail added and a better photograph to see the real colours! This one is a bit of a white out.

The darker feathers have been added with a primary mix of Burnt Sienna and Ultramarine Blue. The highlights base on the dark feather tips were created with Buff Titanium, Raw Sienna and White.

This painting is now finished and in the Wildlife gallery. I have used all the above used variety and mixtures of paint to complete the final details of this work. The only new mixture used was for the shadows by the eye and eye detail with mixtures of Burnt Sienna, Raw Sienna, Buff Titanium and Titanium white in varying colour mixes to suit the painting.

I hope you have enjoyed this demonstration and its finished work.