Ring-necked Parakeets in watercolor

Step 1: sketchy-sketch.

Step 2: some vaguely parrot-shaped blobs of color.

Step 3: those parrots need some beaks and feet!

 

Step 4: and they need something to stand on, too, don't they?

Step 5: how about some lovely parrot eyes? And other important facial features, such as visible mouths and neck markings?

Step 6: What about details? Better wings, better feathers! The parrots demand them! Also more of a background, too!

Step 7: Ah, but we need more of a background than that! Something that seems a little more interesting, and a little less flat. And just a little bit more polish on those parrots so they stand out, the stars of the show.

That's it, that's the end! It's like magic. Parrots, suddenly, where there were no parrots before! Watercolor paints on watercolor paper, with some colored pencil work for the details, and a tiny bit of black ink for those parrot pupils.

My workspace

Why Ring-necked Parakeets? I kinda fell in love with them when I watched some really charming individual pet birds on YouTube. I was fascinated by how many of them seemed to really love stuffed animals - my parrot, a Blue-crowned Conure, has only ever had a very passing interest in them (she might bite them, or give them one kiss or a high-five if prompted, but that's it). They also have such sweet voices!

You can see from the videos that the captive birds come in a variety of colors, and you might be able to tell from the painting that I'm pretty fond of that pastel blue form.Wild birds are usually green, though you can see from photos like this that the green can include aspects of blue:

Photo from Wikipedia

Photo from Flickr

               
So, in short, I just think they're really charming, interesting, charismatic birds, which is why I wanted to paint some.