Painting Process of ‘Kingfisher contemplating the Damselfly’ | Big Painting Project No’1 | Illustration

 

In this blog, I’m talking about the painting process of this big painting, as well as what inspired me.

First things first, what inspired me to do the big painting, for the first time. All thanks to my work colleague!

She’s not really a painter but she actually found her new talent with the painting recently. When she said, many months ago, that she’ll try painting for the first time with the canvas that sat in her house for ages, this canvas is not the small size for the first try, no, it was huge, roughly A1 size. I thought that was very brave of her to do it, especially for the first time.

Each time she painted it, she showed me the photos of her process and we talked about what to add, the inspiration, the colours, the failure and success. She even surprised herself with how good her painting is, I also was very impressed by her big painting!

Speaking of inspiration, she searched the images search of large paintings, including the birds for me. With every image she showed me, the more inspired I feel. And that’s when I took a plunge to do a big painting!

So I look for A2 smooth texture and thick gsm papers and searched the wildflowers to have that fit in with the birds’ habitat.

Straight away, I went for a kingfisher, with a vibrant orange chest and some elegant shades of blue on its wings.

I then collected the wildflowers that natively grow in the wetlands such as ponds, rivers and streams, as the kingfisher is a waterside bird.

The wildflowers I set on are marsh marigold, wild angelica, common bistort and reed canary grass.

I promptly thought of marsh marigolds as I always see them by the pond not far from my house.

Here’s a demonstration of what I see every time I walk by.

I then begin to draw the wildflowers and paint.

At that point, I felt the need to add on, like something is missing. So I stepped back and stared at this painting, and then I thought I can just add an insect. 

So I went for a blue damselfly.

I remembered that I have some metallic paints, I thought to use them on the kingfisher, to make it the more focal point of the artwork. The colours I used were blue and green, although the green looks a bit faint but it’s there only to look closely.

Plus, here’s a short video of the painting process, starting from halfway;

I’m very happy with how well I’ve done with my first big painting. I like a big thank you to my work friend for the inspiration and encouragement! 🤗

To see the finished and framed artwork, go to this blog, Kingfisher Contemplating the Damselfly , for more lovely photographs of it. 🖼

Thanks for reading this long blog and have a lovely day!