Painting a Ruby Throated Humming Bird

[John]

:-/I want to start to paint my humming bird but I have misplaced my painting instructions as to the right colours.This is a male birdI undeerstand it has a greenish back white breast,ruby throat but at what shade of colours and the wings I have no idea on their colour.Any help would be appriciated thanks

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

alizarin crimson is a good start for the throat

[mysticpeterson]

hi
send me an email to mysticpeterson@wmconnect.com and i will send you a full color chart on it.
tim

[John]

Thanks to everyone with your help and with the colour guid I will be well on my way thanks again

There are 2 good books on carving humming birds. Both are published by Fox Books,1970 Broad Street,East Petersburg,PA 17520.One is titled 'Carving Humming Birds 'by Charles Solomon and David Hamilton.The other is titled'Carving North American Humming Birds,by the same authors.They contain plans,how to carve the birds,how to paint them and how to create habitat.

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

Off topic a bit...but south of Tucson there is a valley where the hummingbirds winter, never made it there while we lived in Tucson I am sorry to say, but the variety of hummers there according to others is unbelievable! Some have tail feathers I guessitamate at about 2 ft long! can't remember the numbers of the different types but way up there! sorry, thought this might be of interest !

[David_Aaron_Sercel]

John,

Here is how I go about painting a Hummingbird.

First, I paint the wings because the colors don’t get blended into other
parts of the bird. I begin painting the wings by putting down a base coat
of white. Then, while the white is still wet, I blend a little burnt umber
in to the center of the feathers (to create the illusion of a shadow where
the feathers meet). Then I will start applying washes of burnt umber,
raw sienna, and black, until I get the color that I want.

Then I move to painting the body. I first paint the top part of the body
and the wing coverts with Hookers Green. While this is still wet, paint
the underside white and blend the white into the green. You will have
to work pretty quick with the blending if you are working with acrylics
because they dry so fast. After the white is blended into the green, I
blend a little bit of Burnt Umber into the white area around the undertail
coverts. On the green part, I blend Pthalo Green into the parts of the
bird where I want the illusion of shadows, and a lighter green like
Emerald Green into the areas for the highlights. I will also blend some
Jo’Sonja Green Iridescent paint into the highlight areas.

On the throat: I first paint the entire throat area gold (this looks pretty weird
at first), then I put a thin wash of black on the feather tips. After that I start
applying washes of Crimson Red to the throat until I have built up the intensity
of color that I want. Remember, a Hummingbird’s throat area (also called the
gorget) is naturally shinny, almost looking like plastic.

The tail feathers get painted greyish black with a tuch of Burnt Umber.

Hope that wasn’t too confusing.

David,

Have you ever carved an Old Squaw? I am carving one right now and I am trying to collect as many photos as I can. I was wondering if you have done one and if you have a list of colours used.

I started carving it years ago in a club I belonged to and I've decided that I want to get it finished. The carving part is no problem, it's the painting that I'm going to have trouble with. Any help would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks,Chris.

[David_Aaron_Sercel]

No, I havn't done one of those yet.

I think there was an article on painting one in the Spring 1995 issue of
Wildfowl Carving Magzine.

You could also try asking this question on decoycarvingforum.com. Someone on there would probably be able to help you.

Here is a link: http://decoycarvingforum.com/6/ubb.x