Mona Vivar Fine Art: Impressionist Techniques: Brown Pelican

This week I decided to create an oil painting of a brown pelican using impressionist techniques. Here's my limited palette: titanium white, cadmium yellow medium, lemon yellow, cadmium orange, cadmium red light, alizarin crimson, ultramarine blue and phthalo blue. These colors are sure bets for creating harmonious color. I used small amounts of Liquin for thinning the paint when necessary. The brown mixtures you see are combinations of white, cadmium orange, alizarin crimson and ultramarine blue.

I sketch the pelican using a very thin mix of ultramarine blue and alizarin crimson. The canvas was a rejected thin acrylic painting. Oil can safely be used on acrylics. No need to waste a perfectly good surface.

I then applied paint to the pelican using the variety of rich browns and greys mixed in the beginning. I added pure cadmium and lemon yellow for the head. I haven't worked the background at this point. I used thick paint for an impasto effect throughout this demonstration.

I worked the background using combinations of white, ultramarine blue, and cadmium orange. I also used a variety of directions in my brushstrokes to add more interest to the overall look of the painting.

The eye of a pelican is what really makes it an interesting. lively bird. The blue iris is more intense against the yellow feathers. The light is coming from the left so I used lighter ultramarine blue (using more white in the mix) on the bottom right of the iris. I placed a white sparkle dot at the upper left portion of the pupil. This gives the illusion of light shining on the eye.