How to Paint Love Birds
- 1). Sketch the basic form of your lovebirds onto the paper or canvas with your pencil. The body should be an oval shape. The head should be round and around three-quarters of the size of the body. The tail should be a wedge shape and quite short. Lovebird's beaks are quite large in proportion to their heads, and their eyes are seed-shaped and set just up and back from the beak. Erase any lines you do not want.
- 2). Mix a peach color on your palette from red and yellow paint, and apply this to the face of the lovebird. Use a small wedge brush. Make the brush strokes radiate out from the beak towards the back of the head and down the chest about half-way. Leave the beak and eye unpainted.
- 3). Mix a light green, and apply this to the belly portion of the lovebird. Make the brush strokes follow the same line, as this helps simulate the lay of the feathers. Mix a slightly darker green and apply to the top side of the lovebird, all the way down to the tail.
- 4). Add a touch of blue to the darker green shade of paint. Use this color to accentuate the tail feathers and the line of the wings on the body. Use a small pointy-tipped brush, and make longer strokes for this detailing. Blend the colors with a dry wedge brush.
- 5). Blend a small amount of red into the peach color on the palette, and brush on feather details in light strokes with a clean point-tipped brush. Make the color slightly darker above the beak and between the eyes.
- 6). Mix white into one portion of the peach color to make a very light peach. Apply this to the beak. Paint in the eye with black. Then paint on a very thin line of white around the eye, and a dot of white in the eye, to simulate the light catching on the black. Alternatively you can paint the beak red, as some lovebirds have red beaks.
- 7). Combine a very small amount of black into the light peach color so that it becomes slightly gray. Paint the feet in this color. Add a touch more black. Then use a small pointed brush to paint the details on the feet and beak, such as the shadow between claws and the line between the upper and lower portions of the beak.
- 8). Stand back from your painting around 3 or 4 feet. Look at it as a whole. Determine if there needs to be more light or shade in any area on the love bird, or if one part needs more definition or to be highlighted. Go back to the painting, and add in any highlights or shades you think are necessary.