Gang Gang Cockatoos

If you decide to paint birds or animals it always helps to know a little about them … things like their habitat and their eating habits. This knowledge will make your paintings more believable.

- Denise Smith

I decided to paint a pair of Gang Gang Cockatoos. Fortunately for me, five of them landed in my back yard and set about eating some seed pods. They were interested in feeding, so I clicked away and shot some photographs for the demonstration painting! The title of my painting is ‘My Resplendent Redhead’ – Gang Gang Cockatoos.

If you decide to paint birds or animals, it helps to know a little about them; for instance their habitat and their eating habits.

STEP ONE

Music is important for me. Sometimes it’s classical or maybe old time rock and roll. I selected a half sheet of olive green Colourfix Pastel Paper and taped it to the MDF board. I enlarged some reference photographs on my printer (I like to have them up in front of me while in the process of getting my initial drawing down).

I do a lot of thinking about composition, colour, background and foreground before anything gets onto the paper. I also shape a large piece of newspaper like a tray and stick it to the base of my MDF board, so it can catch the falling pastel dust as I work.

I attached a strip of Colourfix paper beside my painting, to test colours.

STEP TWO

Time to sketch; first on my pad as this would familiarise me with my subjects. It also helped with composition.

Once I started with the charcoal on the Colourfix paper I changed the composition slightly – I wanted a connection with each bird and overlapping them helped.

Charcoal allows me to wipe off and redraw easily. A soft rag is all that is needed for wiping off.