Painting: The Bird of Paradise, Part I

Was very bored tonight. I guess I'll be sharing this painting of mine, of lack of better stuff to do. Well, painting-in-process, at least: (currently I have moved a little bit further: added the eye, some highlights, and painted the base color for the branch)

And this is the planning sketch. I will be referring to, well, a reference.

The painting is of a lesser bird-of-paradise (cendrawasih kecil, Paradisaea minor). Why lesser? There is the greater bird-of-paradise. But... birds are not what i would usually draw these days. However, the last task of my painting class, about a month ago was to draw something, anything, related to Indonesia. So I would not waste too much time, I just picked the first one on Google Images.

I used oil paint; it's been a while (almost a year and a half) since I last used it, but it is the paint i've used most. Maybe some little (vague-ish and perhaps already widely known) tips from a mediocre such as I, hearing my friends asking a lot about how I made the brushstrokes smoothly:

1. Do not use too much oil medium but not too little, too much will make the paint too runny and the brushstrokes will be more visible, while too little will only waste paint.

2. Don't just stroke your brushes in straight lines; make strokes in circles and straight strokes where you want them to have texture, such as the tail in my painting. 

3. As important a step is to your keep brushes fluffy by cleaning them right after use, so that the brush doesn't turn stiff. I personally submerge them in hot water plus dish soap. Dish soap is made to clean oil, and heat increases the solubility.

Well, the holidays will be filled with writing up essays and stories, reading Magnus Chase and the Sword of Summer plus finishing up some manga, and drawing... lots of stuff. So the painting should only be finished next year. Besides, I'll still need to consult to my teacher about the colors, and most importantly, background. Backgrounds baffle me up until now.

Oh wow, it's ten days to go until 2016.

To part II

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Edit 18/2/16: Changed title.