The flexible and adaptable medium of acrylics is ideal for capturing the detail and colour of birds.

This alphabetically-arranged guide provides instruction on how to paint twenty-six different European and North American species, with full information on materials and colours and with emphasis on the detail work that characterises each one.

The book begins, however, with a thorough grounding in the structure of birds and with explanations of how to interpret shapes, eyes, beaks, wings and, above all, feathers. These have subtle shadings that can be used to give the impression of fine detail at the same time as creating structure and a sense of depth. Each individual demonstration only occupies four pages, so this section is important and provides the foundation you'll be working from as you progress.

As well as the birds themselves, Andrew shows you how to give your subject a simple setting that reflects its habitat - standing in water, perching on a branch or sitting on a rock. These backgrounds set the subject in context and also help to give it scale without detracting from the main centre of interest, which is the bird itself.
Birds are a fascinating, rewarding and, above all, colourful subject and this guide will help you get the very most out of them.

Search Press . Hardback . 144 pages . Colour throughout