How to Paint a Red Cardinal

I love using red to warm up my home, especially during the winter, so I painted this Red Cardinal and wanted to show you How to Paint a Red Cardinal.

It always feels so bare, so stark after the holidays, doesn’t it? This year I decided to use natural branches, a little greenery and red birds to fill in the blank spaces.

Here’s the pattern. Click on the caption to download it or here. I’m having problems linking the file to the post’s pic.

You’re welcome to use the line art for painting or anything else you want – a coloring page, maybe? – just provide a link back to here, please.

Ok, let’s get started!
Step 1:Basecoat the bird with Red. Any bright red will work. I used Napthol Red.

It will probably take 2 coats. I painted this on watercolor paper, and it definitely took 2 coats.

Paint the beak with a light coral/orange/tangerine-kind of color. Or even gold would work. I mixed Napthol Red with Antique Gold. see below post for complete Supply List.

Now, for the shading. I used Dark Burnt Umber, which is a really deep brown-almost black. You could also use Charcoal. But I prefer deep brown. Apply shading as shown in pictures.

Add the detailing as I drew on the line art, including the beak. It will look dark – really dark. Don’t freak out. You’ll add a topcoat in a minute to everything except above and below the beak.

For the bird’s tummy, I added some glaze to the paint to get a more translucent shading. If you don’t have FolkArt Floating Medium yet, you can add a little water to your paint and work your brush thru it. But as soon as you can, get some Floating Medium. You won’t be sorry. Promise!

Now for the topcoat. I used Ceramcoat Barn Red. Any shade deeper than your basecoat will work. You can paint the entire bird, but I left a section just under the wing the basecoat. It just adds a little contrast that way.

But do you see how the topcoat camouflages the shading?

Last step – take a tiny bit of white and add 2 dots to the ‘eye’ and 2 dots to the beak.

Watercolor paper 140 lb.
Foam plate for palette
Paper towels
Paintbrushes-
round 10/0
#12 flat
round 6/0
#6 flat
Paints-
Ceramcoat Napthol Red Light
Antique Gold
Dark Burnt Umber
Barn Red
White
Folk Art Floating Medium