Pied Wagtail
Watercolour of a Pied Wagtail for today’s sketch. Every year we have a Pied Wagtail pair, who nest amongst the climbing plants on the garden store. So every year I get to observe how they work as a team. The Pied Wagtail is unmistakable with their wagging long tail, which you can recognise at a distance.
Pied Wagtail Quirky Nature
I love to observe the Pied Wagtails, they are quite intelligent birds. They work as a team, taking it in turns to be look out, while they build their nest and once they start to feed their young. Pied Wagtails never use our bird feeders, but from dawn to dusk they are constantly looking for worms, in the lawn. Watercolouring the Pied Wagtail isn’t too difficult, they tend to ignore me and continue looking for worms, just as long as I’m not too close, but they won’t go anywhere near their nest if they spy me.
Pied Wagtail Watercolour Mixes
It was a gorgeous sunny day, so I sat on the bench, observing and painting the Wagtails on the lawn. For this watercolour sketch I again used only 3 palettes. I used two smaller brushes, to achieve more detail. You need patience when applying a mixed black watercolour. You have to slowly add the layers, so the mixture doesn’t break the colours apart or lift from the paper. The white areas are the paper. Sometimes you feel as if you hold your breath as you apply the paint.
Lots of small brushstrokes of paint have been added to give a sense of the feathers. The grey watercolour mix is a very watered down version of the black. Wagtails all have slightly different markings. The female Wagtails tend to be more grey and when the young are born, they are also very grey.
Every year we have a pair of Pied Wagtails nesting in the climbers. It would be lovely to think they were the same ones returning every year.
