01 Dec 2017Mont Marte

How to Draw a Hummingbird with Colour Pencils

How to colour a Hummingbird with Ultrasoft Pencils

The materials for this lesson can be found at a Gold or above Art Centre. Go to to find the one nearest to you. MSB0062 Mont Marte Watercolour Pad A3 180gsm MPN0109 Mont Marte Ultra soft Pencils 18pce MPN0026 Mont Marte Drawing set Materials Lis t . . .

This project is done with colour pencils, and as they are quite hard on the paper it is good to use a robust stock. For this reason watercolour paper is ideal. When transferring the image don’t press too hard or you will create an indentation on the paper. 1. Transferring the image. To transfer the image, shade the back side with a 6B pencil, flip the image and tape it onto a sheet of 180 gsm watercolour paper at A3 sizing. Retrace the line work very lightly with a HB pencil. Carefully remove tape and redraw in the beak, outline of the bird and the eye. Don’t redraw in the flower though. 2 Under colouring the bird In this step we first add blue around the eye and then colour the iris Brown. Next apply a thin coat of colour onto the bird’s body. The colours used are Light Blue, Lemon Yellow, Turquoise, and Light Green. Refer to the reference image to see where to put the colours. 1 2

One technique that is constantly used is to lay a coat of White pencil over the top of a colour, this softens the colour and mutes it slightly making it more realistic. To keep a sharp point you can use a sheet of sandpaper to fashion the tip. 3. Top coating The first step in the detailing stage is to lay on the feathers with a B Pencil. Make sure you follow the form of the Humming Bird. Once all of the feathers are in, lay more colour into each feather if it needs it. Once the body has been finished lay in the wings. The wings are comprised of 2 colours: a Naples Yellow on the feathers and a Brown on the rest of the wing. Build up the tones on top of one another until the correct density has been achieved. The tail feathers can be created with Orange for the quill, then Blue around the edge, followed by filling in the feathers with red and blue stripes. 1 4. Detailing. Draw in the feet then lay in the shadow followed by adding a thin coat of Blue and White. Darken any areas of shadow and lighten any areas of highlight with White Colour pencil. 3 4

Y ou might also prefer to print out the PDF onto good stock and colour the image directly onto the printout. The flower. The flower is essentially handled from light to dark. So lay down a light coat of Pink. Work up the scale and lay more tone into the areas where it is darker. For the areas of shadow add Red. Use the White pencil to lay a coat over the flower to soften it all. Add more Red to the areas of shadow and then lightly blend some Purple into the areas of deep shadow. To create the Green lay down Light Blue then overlay a coat of Lemon Yellow followed by a light coat of Naples Yellow. Follow the order of colours and paint in the stem and then the lady beetle. 5

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Material List

  • Ultra-Soft Colour Pencils Signature 18pc
  • Drawing Set Signature 8pc
  • Watercolour Pad German Paper Premium A3 180gsm 15 Sheet

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