LEVEL: BEGINNER
Limited Palette
Painting with just black and white helps the artist focus on value. Value is the darkness or lightness of a color. Using just black and white, the values will range from black, through a lot of gray midtones, to white.
STEP ONE
Use two different blacks (bone and carbon) and two different whites (zinc and titanium). Carbon black is a lot darker and more opaque than bone black and can be used for the darkest blacks of the painting. Zinc white is good for mixing grays with bone black for the midtones. Use titanium white for the highlights, as it is more opaque even when mixed with other colors.
Start by mixing a bit of bone black and zinc white to make a light gray mixture for the underpainting. Spray a light mist of water on your canvas. Then brush a thin layer of the gray paint mixture over it, smoothing out any thick strokes as you go.
STEP TWO
Next use a mixture of carbon black and zinc white to sketch some branches with your thinnest brush. Make the branches thicker in areas by going over them several times, expanding and building as you go. The branches should be thickest near the trunk and taper at the ends. Add two bird bodies with rough round shapes.
STEP THREE
Next add shapes for the heads. The tricky one is the top chickadee. His tail is up and his beak points down toward the other chickadee. For the bottom chickadee, add a short, wide head. Fill in some detail to show the black cap on the head and chin of the bottom chickadee and the back and dark feathers on the top chickadee.
STEP FOUR
Make the outline of leaves as they would grow on a tree. They should all face away from the tree trunk and curve at varying degrees, as if blown by the wind.
STEP FIVE
Now take carbon black and darken the underside of the branches and add a small triangular beak to the lower chickadee.
STEP SIX
Add some shading with gray paint from the palette. Fill in the leaves with another mixture of gray paint. It should be a midtone gray somewhere between white and black.
STEP SEVEN
Add a streak of paint for the vein down the middle of each leaf. Add some of the white paint to the top of each branch as a highlight. Then add some midtone gray across each branch.
STEP EIGHT
Create a light gray with a mixture of bone black and titanium white for the background. It should be lighter than the leaves. Apply the paint in loose brushstrokes to the background. Use the smaller brush for tight spaces.
STEP NINE
Add a white dot of paint where you want each eye to be placed. This way, if you want to move the eye, it is easier than covering a blob of thick black paint.
STEP TEN
When placing the blacks of the eyes, it is best to start small and then enlarge the eyes as needed. As you can see, the eyes on the lower chickadee are just peeking above the beak. On the upper chickadee, only place one eye.
STEP ELEVEN
Now add a highlight to each eye with your small brush. Repaint any branches or leaves that may have gotten covered by the background paint. Make any other adjustments you want. Remember to sign or initial your new painting!
