Inventing Colors in Birds, March 22 & April 5 , 1-5 PM, EST
 
Focus on Sparrows & Doves In this class; we will do something new and exciting with bird plumage. I live in an area with many sparrows and doves, all of which are delightful, if not a little tawny. It has been a goal of mine to experiment with changing their feather color to look more like their distant relatives in the tropics. 
 
Taking inspiration from finches, parakeets, and parrots, we will take ordinary reference photos and, on canvas, learn how to manage color, chroma, and value enough to change their feathers convincingly while maintaining the same weight and drawing pattern. 
 
 I will teach you to design a composition, lay in your lights and darks in an earth color wash, block in and render. Rendering techniques will include glazing, impasto, dry brushing, and other forms of retouching dry layers. 
 
I will demonstrate these techniques on several different canvases, all in various stages of progress, so you can follow along with each step.
 
Students may create work and receive critiques in the second part of the class. In addition, they will receive a final review at their time of choice after they have let their painting from class dry and applied a final layer. You may email your work at any time post-class for a final critique. 
 
This session will be recorded and made available to students on a private page on my website, along with other resources related to the topic of this class.
 
Supply List
Ultramarine Blue Green Shade (or any ultramarine blue from Old Holland or Michael Harding or another brand of your choice) 
Chromium Oxide Green 
Lemon Ochre (or any Yellow Ochre)
Chrome Yellow Primrose (or a cadmium Lemon Yellow) 
Lead Tin Yellow Dark (not necessary, just my favorite) 
Orange Molybdate (lovely orange, but cadmium orange can be substituted) 
Pozzuoli Red (a fancy name for red iron oxide pigments. Try looking for Venetian Red or English Red too) 
Rose Madder (or Alizarin Crimson, our Permanent Rose)
Cypress Umber Raw Dark (or a raw Umber)
Lead White #1 (or Titanium white, Flake White Replacement) 
Bone Black (“Ivory Black” No one makes paint from natural Ivory anymore, it's just a fanciful name)
Vermillion (discontinued. Try Cadmium Red instead)
Cobalt Chromite Blue
French Sienna
 
Mediums- Oleogel 
Epoxide Oil (discontinued. Try Stand Oil or Sun Thickened oil instead) 
 
Canvas Support- One 16x20" primed stretched canvas or panel (https://www.naturalpigments.com/oil-painting/supports.html)