Coral Cove: Ruddy Turnstone

Hi Friends!

We have begun working on our first major illustration. We were asked to select a specimen from our trip to Coral Cove last week to fully illustrate. Since I very often draw plants and vegetation, I decided to step outside of my comfort zone and draw animals! I browsed through a few images I took of the various birds that were roaming around the beach and selected one to use as a reference for my illustration.

I ended up choosing to illustrate the Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres). These little birds were roaming around the beach all day and are one of the most prominent bird species I saw that day, so I figured they would be the perfect specimen to illustrate. Since we visited Coral Cove in February, these birds are in their winter plumage.

After my main reference image was selected, I began to sketch!

Along with my primary reference image, I utilized other images I took of the same species to analyze details, such as coloring, feather patterns, and form. After I completed my sketch, I began adding watercolor.

I started with a light wash of brown in the areas where the bird had brown coloring. I created two shades of this brown color, one for the areas that are in the light and another for shadowed areas. I created the base brown color by mixing Burnt Umber with Yellow Ochre, then added a small amount of Ultramarine Blue to this mixture for the shadowed areas.