Pencil roughs

As always, the first step in a natural history illustration is to source your reference material and draw up a pencil sketch.  I do this directly onto watercolour paper.  Using a Pentel P205 mechanical pencil, I am now working on Fluid 100 hot press paper.

I am lucky enough to have a lot of specimens in the freezer.  This sounds macarbre, but people know what I do for a living.  If they see roadkill, or find a bird the cat brought in, they’ll often pass it on to me.  I’ve recently taken a taxidermy course so I can store these speciemens as skins, rather than alongisde the ice cream in the freezer…  For more on this, have a look at my youtube video “Birds, bugs, and bodeis in the Freezer”.

In fact, I drew the barn swallow twice.  Once from below, and once from above.

Swallow pencil rough, from below.

Swallow pencil rough, from above.

Step 1: Wing and tail feathers

I start by looking closely at my specimen,  I look at the directions of the detail on the feathers, and refer closely to the bird as I mix up a dark colour.  This is a mix of Vandyke brown, Prussian blue, and lamp black.  I tend to use Winsor and Newton pans.  You aren’t supposed to, but when they run low I top them up from the tubes.

Barn swallow and painting in progress.

Here’s a detail (below) showing the parallel paint strokes.  The white spots show the feathers’ white markings.

Working into the feathers is a matter of adding texture and body colour.  I mix a dilute brown-black.  This has more blue in than the first colour I mixed.  I apply this over the feathers and let it dry.  Once dry, I use a dark blue-black and work into the detail again.  I focus on the feather edges.

The central veins of each flight feather is outlined with vandyke brown and a prussian blue.

Detail of the Barn swallow feathers.

In the illustration below, you can see how these layers of dilute washes and detail have built up.  The feathers have colour without losing all texture.

I’ve also added a little depth to the white markings.  This involves a light touch, and a dilute mix of Cerelean blue and purple.

Step 2: Painting the body of the Barn swallow

The feathers on the swallow’s body are not white.  They’re a buff cream colour.  The trick with pale areas of feather is to only use the colour on the shades parts, and edges.  A mix of yellow ochre, purple, and a touch of brown were used here.  I applied the paint with tiny brush marks, quite dilute.

Body painted in.

Having the specimen to work from is invaluable.  You can see the way the shadows fall on the feathers, and re-arrange the,m to perfectly match the drawing.  I would have had trouble figuring out the white areas under the wings had I not had my swallow from the freezer on hand.

In this detail you can see how I used two or three shades of ochre to build up some depth.  The graphite pencil marks are still visible.

Detail of the body feathers.

Comparing the specimen to the painting shows that I have made the body paler than it is in real life.  This is a conscious decision.  If you make pale areas too yellow or grey, you sometimes end up with a bird that lookd grubby.  Keeping a light touch helps counter this effect.

Step 3: Painting the head of the barn swallow

The reds and blue-blacks on the head of the barn swallow are very distinctive.  They’re also quite tricky to mix a good colour match for.  Although I think of the throat patch as red, in fact it’s a brick-brown.  I mix this with cadmium orange, vandyke brown, a touch of purple, and a little blue.

The colours also change dramatically depending on the light.  You need to decide on one main colour and work around this.

Head of the barn swallow specimen.

I build up the texture with lots of tiny brush strokes.  Towards the centre of each area I leave a paler region.  Once the underlying texture of the feathers is plotted in, I pop a top wash of a more dilute colour on these places.  This helps provide a feeling of depth.

With the red of the throat, these highlights can be made rather yellow.  With the dark blue crown, I chose a pale blue.

Head of the swallow detail.

Step 4: Eyes, beak, and details

I always paint the beak and eyes last.  I know other illustrators who start with these details.  They maintain (and they’re probably right) that is the eye is wrong the illustration is no good.  I just feel a bit odd being stared at by my illustration as i try to bring it to life.

The drawback of working this way is that it puts a good deal of pressure on you to get the beak and eye correct!

The crucial part with the eye is to get the highlight right.  I’ll sometimes revisit this with a touch to white goauche.

I chose to put a fly in the swallow’s beak, these amazing birds are voracious predators of tiny gnats and summer-flying insects.

And here is the finished illustration.

Finished illustration of the barn swallow.

Some final thoughts

I find it strange, when I illustrate an animal like a swallow.  There’s this gorgeous, fragile specimen sitting on my desk.  It seems absurd, as you examine the detail of the feathers and the intensity of its colours, to even try and replicate this beauty on paper.

I’m also acutely aware that this tiny creature, smaller than my hand, has probably migrated from rural Wales to south Africa and back.  It seems so implausible, and so utterly extraordinary.  What chance of fate caused the hapless bird to die here, in Hay on Wye?  What other perils has it survived?

I feel incredibly privileged to work with these specimens.  They make it much easier to illustrate an animal, but I also find them very moving.

Below is the finished illustration of the other pencil rough, seen from above rather than from below.

For other step by step animal illustration blogs, including birds, please check out my blogs.

The post Step by Step Barn Swallow appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

I was recently commissioned to complete a large natural history natural science watercolour illustration of a landscape.  Woodstock is a water meadow habitat; the illustration would feature my wildlife and botanical illustrations of the species there.   This illustration will be used on an interpretation panel, and was a challenge and a joy to create.

Linda Francis is a designer friend I’ve worked with before, so I was more than happy to take on this job for The Wychwood Project and Woodstock Town Council.

There are to be two interpretation panels.  One will have archeology information and is to be illustrated by another illustrator (Jennie Anderson).  Mine is to focus on the wildlife and plants.

Working on the pencil rough

My approach to these animal-rich landscapes is always the same – piece it together like a landscape jigsaw. (Here’s a link to other blogs on a similar theme; Malham Cove and Hartslock landscape).

I was lucky enough to have a rough that Jennie had already worked up; this simplified things enormously.

thumbnail illustration by Jennie Anderson

I worked from this to plot in all the required elements.  There are a lot of invasive species involved in this landscape, from plants to crayfish, and we were keen to show the impact (positive and negative) these species can have on the habitats they inhabit.  For example, the American signal crayfish outcompetes and even predates on the native White clawed crayfish; whereas the Water soldier can provide shelter to aquatic invertebrates.

Once I found my references, I placed the animals on the page as pencil line drawings.

Woodstock rough: Placing the animals on the page

This illustration is quite an odd size, very large, and long and thin.  This was to prove a challenge when it came to stretching the paper as the paper itself was only 1cm wider than the finished painting, but it also meant I had to ensure the plants worked extra hard to keep the composition flowing across the page – water weed needed to carry your eye across the pond, and willow branches had to take the viewer from one side of the landscape to the other.

Woodstock rough (annotated)

Once drawn up, I provide the client with a clear and an annotated version of the rough and wait for feedback.  In this case we introduced a different scene for the crayfish, but otherwise made very few changes.

Painting the background landscape

First step (after stretching the paper with the thinnest imaginable margin under the gummed tape, then having to stretch it all over again!) was to cover the whole sheet with a pale blue wash.  This was followed with a pale ochre wash over everything except the elements right at the front of the illustration.  This means only the parts of the painting closest to you will have bright contrast provided by the untouched pure white of the paper below.  All other parts of the landscape are slightly muted by these blue and ochre washes. Next comes the long business of painting in the distant landscape and trees in very pale watercolour.  They require enough detail to seem convincing of distance and species.

Illustrating the vegetation and plant species

Then, with colour becoming more intense and saturated as I paint toward the front of the illustration, I work into the plants and water margin vegetation.  This process takes a really long time, but isn’t tough, just somewhat repetitive.

Painting in the plants and vegetation

The end result is a landscape with animal-shaped jigsaw pieces missing.  From now on it gets really fun to work on!  Below you can see the spaces where (starting on the right, and spiralling in) the otter, dragonfly, swallow, kingfisher, perch, lesser diving beetle, and crayfish pair will slot in.

Illustration of water meadow waiting for the animal species to be slotted in like jigsaw pieces

Adding animals: Peacock butterfly

I was so happy working on the Peacock butterfly, they’re stunning insects so it was a joy to get lost in the intensity of colour and contrast with a tiny Winsor & Newton series 7 sable brush.  I worked into each colour in turn, and inevitably the work gets easier as more of the colours are plotted in.

Working on the Peacock butterfly

The dark areas of the upper wings were the last to be painted in.

Woodstock landscape detail: Peacock butterfly

Illustrating the animals: Birds on the left hand side of the landscape

Keeping to the left hand side of the illustration (I’m right handed, so I lean on a sheet of paper laid across the right hand side of any work, hence I always work across the page from left to right to avoid damaging completed areas of the painting) I painted in the Grey heron and a bit more tonality in the marginal vegetation.

Grey Heron in the landscape

Here’s a close up of the heron, you can see that because it’s in the distance I’ve kept the contrast and colours muted.

Heron illustration with muted colours

The next jigsaw piece to complete was the Kingfisher.  The jewel-like colours on this bird make it a joy to paint, but also a challenge.  If the blue and orange overlap you’re left with a muddy brown (and a very non-kingfisher-like) mess.

water meadow landscape detail: Kingfisher

The Moorhen was next, with its distinctive bright yellow legs and sombre plumage.

water meadow landscape detail: Moorhen

Painting the underwater scene

Moving across the page, the next area needing work was the underwater scene.  I added more to the water itself, then worked into the Perch.  Fish are tricky as you want to avoid painting each individual scale, but need to give some suggestion of the texture of the animal.  This fish is also in the middle distance so I had to keep the contrast and intensity of colour limited.

Under water detail: Perch (again, muted colours to imply the fish is a little way back from the viewer)

The lesser diving beetle followed; this animal was simple as it is pale yellow with darker mottled marking on top.

Under water detail: Lesser diving beetle.

Illustrating the Crayfish predation vignette

Most of the underwater scene is done, and I have to face up to the not inconsiderable challenge of painting the Signal crayfish predation on its smaller British white-clawed cousin.

Water meadow landscape in progress: Next up, the pair of fighting crayfish!

In truth, this part of the illustration had been troubling me as the potential to mess it up was enormous.  I had to make the species look different from each other, but also ensure that the drama of the situation was clear. Luckily, some purple drop shadows helped hold this vignette together.

Underwater detail of Signal crayfish predating on the white clawed crayfish

The underwater part of the illustration was now finished and I breathed a sigh of relief.

Woodstock water meadow: Underwater area completed

Painting a bat, a dragonfly, a swallow in flight…and an otter

Next up were the tiny mayflies and the Pipistrelle bat.  The challenge here was to ensure the bat looked like it was about to eat the mayflies, and that the mayflies were both clear and obviously in front of the hunting bat.

Detail: Pipistrelle bat with mayfly

Over on the left hand side of the illustration there was an area of water soldiers that needed touching up, then a Broad bodied chaser dragonfly and some pond skaters to paint in.

Detail: Broad bodied chaser dragonfly on Water soldier

The swallow against the willow tree (I love the shape of these distinctive old pollarded trees) was a swift “colouring-in” job as it’s mostly white except for that stunning flash of scarlet on the chin.

Woodstock detail: Pollarded willow and swallow in flight

The last animal to be painted in is the otter.  I never enjoy painting these wonderful mammals, they have a tendency to look like dogs, and somehow I have a block when it comes to the shape of their muzzles and skulls.  In this case the head went ok, but I got the colour of the fur terribly wrong, leaving the otter a bright orange hue.  Judicious use of the opposite colour on the colour-wheel (greens and purples) knocked the colour balance to an acceptable shade of brown, but it was a challenge.  Whiskers and the eyes were the last bit to be added.

Woodstock water meadow detail: Otter and White-tailed bumble bee

Adding depth by adding shadows

Finally, with all the elements of the illustration painted in I worked into the shadows and areas of dark in the water.  It’s always easier to do this once the whole illustration is finished.

And there we go, the whole painting is finished and ready for scanning!  It was a real challenge because of the scale of the illustration and because I was working on a watercolour paper I’m not accustomed to (Arches HP).  However, I’m satisfied with the result; in fact there are some bits I’m really pleased with (the butterfly, distant fish, pollarded willow trees, and the moorhen).  It was a lovely job for the start of the summer, and I loved the 2 weeks I spent on it.  Can’t wait to see it in context as an information board soon!

Finished Woodstock Water Landscape Illustration

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Natural history illustration incorporates a wide range of techniques.  I realised about ten years ago that a desirable type of of natural science illustration was one that incorporated numerous species of plant and animal into one landscape.  This wetland landscape done for Natural England is an example.

Working on a new landscape Illustration: Hartslock nature reserve

Recently I’ve been commissioned by Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxon Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) to create a landscape of one of their reserves.  Hartslock reserve has a glorious hill in it which is blousy with seven different species of orchid.  This includes the hybrid lady-monkey orchid which is found nowhere else in the UK.

These seven orchid species need to be incorporated into a scene of the hill.   Other key species of animals also need to be included. The chalkhill-blue butterfly, grizzled skipper, white-stripe grasshopper and brown argus are found on Hartslock hill.  Other plants to include are the knapweed, the field scabious, wild marjoram, cowslip, and clustered bell-flower.  BBOWT are lovely to work for as they provide me with really good reference.

Working up the composition of the landscape

In an ideal world, I’d be able to go and sketch all the elements.  This job came in in February when there’s not so much as a hint of an orchid in sight.  So, I rely on photographic reference and illustrations by other botanical artists.

First step is to try and visualise the illustration.  Piecing together all the different components into one coherent landscapecan take a while.  I normally produce about 6 different approaches before settling on two that I work on further.  As I do this I tend to come up with questions that need clarifying.  These get noted down on the sheet so I remember to email them to the client later on.

Next, I draw up thumbnail sketches (very rough ideas) of a couple of options.  These are always rough, but are clear enough for the client to see and understand.  Here, the main difference between the two is the landscape (included or not) and the viewpoint of the orchids.  In one option you’re right up amongst them, in the other there’s enough distance so you can see the entire plant.  They are annotated so the client can see what you’re suggesting goes where.  (It also means I can remember what species is what!)

Landscape pencil roughs and drawing up the final piece

I was really happy that they decided they preferred the second one, with the landscape.  It makes for a far prettier illustration, and it means there’s less of a big expanse of hill to “colour in”.

Next step is to draw the actual rough up in detail.  First, I draw the landscape in.  I keep the pencil lines light as I plan not to rub them out at the end; they give some substance to the illustration.  Then I put extremely faint markings on the page which suggest, in blocks, where the different animals and plants should go.

Next, I draw up the animal species.  Sometimes using a projector can help with this, as you need to shrink and enlarge the butterflies and grasshoppers to fit into their space in the landscape.

Then I draw in the plants.  In this case drawing up all the orchids, and ensuring their accuracy, took a long time.  Once foreground and background are complete, I put in the middle-ground; the suggestion of distant flowers and orchids, and a bit of scrub, across the hill.  Then I scan it in, stitch it together (the illustration is far larger than my A4 flat bed scanner), adjust the darks and lights so the pencil is clear, and then produce an annotated version for the client.  They get the annotated and unnanotated version emailed to them.  The next (nail-biting) stage is to wait for feedback, and to see what needs changing before going to final.

Starting out: A pale background for the landscape

Once the alterations are complete, it’s time to break out the paints.  I use a very pale blueish wash across everything but the immediate foreground to start, and make it bolder in the sky.

Then I work into the background, again using incredibly pale paints to give a sense of distance.  Less seems to be more when it comes to painting landscape, so often I’ll suggest an area of scrub, or a building, rather than paint it in detail.

Illustrating the middle ground of the landscape

Once the background is done, Ill move forward into the middle-ground.  This takes a little longer than the background as all the trees and grass need to be textured.  Paint colours remain pale, although somewhat stronger then they were for the background.  Using a certain amount of “wet-on-wet” is useful here, a way to suggest the turrets of distant orchids without having to paint each and every bloom.  The volunteer surveying the orchids is plotted in, and as you progress to the foreground there’s increasingly more colour and detail.

At this stage, the painting looks like a child’s jigsaw; all the background complete, but the key species still waiting to be slotted in.  This is my favourite part of these types of painting (click for more examples of my composite landscapes); losing yourself in the intricate detail of each individual plant or animal.

Painting in the animals and individual plants

It can take ages, but with each successive species painted you feel happier and happier with the painting.

Finally, it’s time to rub out some of the more prominent pencil lines, and to cover the background with a light yellow ochre wash.  This unites the background, and brings the foreground into sharp focus.  Final tweaks, mostly involving sharpening areas with shadow, and it’s complete.

And one of the best things about this job is that the client has said they really like it!  Wonderful news, and a fabulous job to work on.

Below is a time lapse video of the landscape being painted (apologies for my hair!)

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