Help with Drawing a Parrot

Gabriele has sent me her painting of a parrot and has asked for help - in particular separating the feathers with a darker colour.This can be done using a very sharp complimentary coloured pencil. Gabrielle also mentions the ‘halo’ of dark colour around the bird this would have to be smoothed out at it does distract the eye.I also feel that the contrast between bird and background and branch is too severe. I suspect that an overall base colour of white pastel was used for the parrot as all the stronger colours seem to have been weakened.Notice the parrots feet are the same tone as the branch and cannot be clearly seen without light ‘halos’ around them. This is a case of – branch lighter or, feet lighter or, change the colour of either one. This is a good case of artistic license if in fact the branch and the feet were like this in the original photograph.For tips and advice on your artwork, join Colin's membership where you can learn to draw using pastel pencils.