painting a swan in watercolour
8 September 2025
Watercolour tutorial — how to paint a swan and its reflection (step-by-step). A graceful white swan, softly lit and mirrored in still water — this step-by-step watercolour tutorial shows how to pa...
birds Clear tags
negative painting in practise
17 January 2024
Hi everyone, After last week's lesson where we painted the abstract goldfish using the negative painting technique, I thought it might be a good idea to follow up with a quick post showing other ways ...
snowy christmas robin
9 November 2023
I'm going to say it! Christmas is coming!! So let's get a bit of head start by painting a cute, little, fluffy robin in the snow. You can scan your finished painting and turn it into a Christmas card ...
let's sketch a seagull
20 October 2022
On Patreon we've had a whole month of watercolour lessons focusing on the sea. Today we add to the fun by painting a seagull. There's a full video lesson in real time, the reference photo, drawing to ...
painting a watercolour duckling
1 April 2021
Happy Easter! I know ducklings aren't a traditional Easter icon, but I couldn't resist this one when I saw the reference photo. So grab a small piece of paper, brushes and paints and join me in painti...
painting birds in watercolour and collage : class photos
3 December 2019
Fantastic Saturday with 8 lovely students learning to paint birds in watercolour, ink and collage. In the morning we all painted my favourite bird, the Piwakawaka. In the afternoon students chose thei...
upcoming class : painting birds in watercolour and collage
14 November 2019
In this one day workshop we'll combine watercolour with collage, ink and other fun media to create one-of-a-kind bird paintings. In the morning we'll work on a painting together, with me guiding you s...
putting in the time : talent vs determination
6 December 2016
Here is a Chaffinch. He's the smartest dressed bird in my garden. He never goes out unless he is perfectly groomed :-) And here's what I read about Chaffinches. They make lots of chip and cheep calls,...
little nz birds update
6 December 2016
Summer is here!. We've been having a lot of adventures outside (photos to come!), and in my studio my series of NZ Birds is ticking along quite nicely. You'll notice I'm still on the little local bird...