Paint with Me! Blue and Gold Macaw

Hey friends in this video I will show you how to paint a beautiful tropical bird, the Blue and Gold Macaw. This is a beginner friendly art tutorial. So if you have never drawn an animal before or painted with watercolor this is a good place to start. Lets begin with the supplies I used and step by step instruction. To watch the video scroll down to the bottom of this blog post.

Supply List

Watercolor Paper. I am using Bee Watercolor Paper from Bee Watercolor Paper Company.

Watercolor paints. I am using Grumbacher Academy Watercolors from the tubes.

Jar of Water

Round brush size 6

Paper towel

Pencil and eraser

Grumbacher Colors

Hooker’s green

Sap green

Black

Prussian Blue

Ultramarine Blue

Cobalt Blue

Lemon Yellow

Alizarin Crimson

To begin you will need to sketch the Macaw lightly on your watercolor paper. Start with a circle for the head and then a smaller circle for the cheek. From here we can place and form the beak which has a lower part and the upper part that hooks down into a moon shape.

Once you are happy with your drawing it is time to paint. Step one, I began by painting in the gold section of our bird and adding some orange by mixing the alizarin crimson and lemon yellow.

Once this is dry you can paint in the blue head, back and shoulder area. This section is good to go over again once it is dry. Use the side of your brush to make short strokes that resemble sections of fluffy feathers. Be sure to leave light blue areas as you paint over again putting in the darker values.

While that is drying you can paint in the beak and eye. Using the black, be sure to load your brush with paint mostly and not so much water. This way the paint is thick on the brush and easier to control. Use just the tip of the brush to paint the wrinkle lines around the eye and above the beak.

Lastly, to finish our tropical Macaw painting we need to fill in around the bird with lots of green foliage. Start light and build darker leaves on top. Use a variety of shapes, round leaves, pointy leaves, thin leaves, etc.

Optional step is some splatter painting with Sap green.

This painting is a lot of fun and a great piece to frame for tropical home decor vibes.

Thanks for painting with me! – Haley

P.S. below is the Facebook Live video of this project. Watch me draw and paint in real time!