Kingfisher Bird Pastel Tutorial with Marco. A step by step guide to Pastel Art
- Marco
- 3 days ago
- 7 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
Learn how to create a stunning pastel kingfisher drawing in this detailed “Kingfisher Pastel Tutorial with Marco.” This step-by-step guide covers the materials you’ll need, blending techniques, and expert tips to bring bright bird colours to life in pastel art. Follow each stage from eye building to feather details and finishing touches.
Some of the products you will be using are Faber-Castell Pastel Pencils, Cassart Pastel, Zestit and Clairefontaine Pastelmat. I will give you a full kit list later but rather than bore you with preamble lets get to it.
I have also included a menu below so you can jump back and forwards if required.
Pro Tip Here Enclosed the full range of Faber Castel Pastel Pencil Colours which I have used in this artwork. I have also used a small number of Cassart Soft Pastels to cover large areas.
For ease and simplicity I have referred to these in brackets as I refer to them in the tutorial.
Faber Castel Colour Chart
I also used a few Caran D’Ache pencil pastels and Cassatt soft pastels these were :-
Caran D’Ache - 300 Fast Orange, 901 Chinese White, 745 Warm Earth, 241 Lemon Yellow
Cassart - Soft White
Step 1. Developing the Eye
This is all about building several layers. I can not stress enough that the lighter you press and therefore prevent the cavities on the paper being blocked with one single colour, the better. In this eye the only element I want to fill with white (101 Medium White) are the two distinctive reflected light spots.
Looking at the eye section by section and having taken care of the two white highlights the next area to concentrate on is the areas that show through the top black layer as grey. You can do this with an almost white grey (230 Cold Grey) or a light coating of white again.
Second identify the area that show as black and using your black pastel pencil (199 Black) shade these in. Take care to include the black outer and the white ringn which circles the iris itself. Notice I have also added a small amount of 183 Light Yellow Ochre.
Step 2 . Blending with Zestit
Blending pastels takes a lot of practice and I think its more difficult than using charcoals. Tinted charcoals are layered in the same way as pastels but respond much better to rubbers for taking out and creating highlights. The colour range is far less so most of my charcoals tend to be black on a white paper with the odd colour provided by coloured charcoal or pastels. The choice of paper is in my opinion absolutely crucial to the artwork you are creating. In the case of Kingfisher there was no other choice for me than Pastelmat by Clairefontaine. I wanted a colour that would set off the bright plumage but also be subtle enough to compliment.
In the end I chose the light grey from the
Pallet 1 Pad. The surface of pastelmat suits my style and allows me to build the layers I need slowly. It is a robust surface but it is very important to use very light strokes, building several layers before blending. This is very important when layering different colours or blending two colours to achieve a blended colour.
So now we come to Zestit. I cant tell you the number of times I have had to abandon a pastel artwork because the paper cant take the blending and tears or because of too much pressure the layers become waxy and unyielding. Then I found Zestit. It's a solvent that allows you to carefully disolve the binders used to make pastel pencils and gently mix them with a paintbrush. Sounds easy doesn't it?
IT ISNT.
The first mistake you will make is applying to much solvent the second is panicking because the pastels change colour, your brush becomes contaminated and you end up putting dark blue on yellow. You will get a nice green but that wasn't the plan....
However, don't dispair, with practice (a lot of practice) you will start to understand. How to apply it, where to apply it and most importantly when not to. So how much Zestit do you apply to the layer to be blendid with your brush or torchon? Yes you can dip a torchon into the liquid and then use it to blend. You can...but I don't. I will explain later. Back to the question how much? I could say as little as possible. I could also say, it depends. None of which answers the question. What does is practice, a lot of practice.
You will think that you can't possibly put so little on to achieve the blending you are after, a lot depends on what you are doing. If we refer back to Step 1 after applying the various layers in the conventional way and using a silicon blending tool (very lightly) I finished the whole eye off with the lightest of paint brush and zestit to achieve the glossy layer of the eye.
Protip. Sketch four or five different eyes in your sketch book and using process in Step 1. Blend the first two eyes without any Zestit solvent using a silicon blender for the first one and a torchon for the second one. For three and four after initial blending apply the zestit as a final finish with a brush and then a gentle final blend with the silicon blender again. The forth attempt will be better the the third one. Now review all four eyes. Which one in your opinion is the best? Those who chose one of the first two eyes haven't as yet mastered how to use Zestit. Those who chose Eye number four have. As I said above however you will also see that it depends very much on the subject, the surface to be blended and even the colours involved.. Sometimes I use a torchon to blend but more often than not I use my finger or on detailed small areas more than often the silicon blenders.
Step 3. Developing the plumage layers for the head.
I have used the image across to show several elements. First notice the very little sketch lines I use for the outline of the various elements of the bird. I prefer to let the Secondly the way in which the first white layers using (101) are applied first. The second layers are (Light Ultramarine 140) or (149 Blush Turquoise) and to darken (143 Cobalt Blue)
Now this is where practice and experience come in to play. I only applied lightest of blue colours on top of the white layers where I wanted the pale blue finished colour to show. The darker colour is almost teal in certain parts of the plumage. This is where I apllied the Zestit solvent but don't go straight onto blending. Give it time, a few minutes, for the solvent to do its work on the binder and then start the blending process. Take the pointed blending tool and using long light strokes starting at the back of the section to be blended and slowly and lightly run over all areas in the direction of the plumage.
Some points to note here. Pastels are cleaner and produce very little dust. Unlike charcoal which as a rule I always mask off areas I am not working on to protect the substrate from overspill and dust contamination, On the right of the image you can see the edge of my leaning pad. This has a sheet of high gloss paper taped to the back of it and a layer of bubble wrap on top. This allow me to move the pad around sometimes on top of my line drawing rest my wrist on the pad and build layers in comfort. I change the glossy paper as soon as I see any transfered colours on it. The bubble wrap has been on there for two years at least. I tape the Pastelmat down with a low tack masking tape to the four corners. Another benefit of the Clairefontaine product that it has a stiff card backing which helps to keep it flat.
Step 4. The Beak and Wing Detail
The left hand image now shows the final image which has had some final detailing and the beak added. Its the beak I want to concentrate on first. I used a slightly different technique here. The important task was to give the beak a curvature as well as a reflection and shine since the bird has just finished fishing. To achieve this I wanted to create several distinct elements. The first layers were in effect eight lines. Starting from the top Black (199), White (101), Cold Grey (230), White with Black highlights, Black, etc.
I also added a small amount at the bottom of the beak of Indian Red (192). I did not use any solvent on the bleak just gently blending the edges of each line in a circular motion with the one above or below. After the initial blending the highlights and shine were added on top with quite a firm pressure and not blended. This gave the bright whites that you can see in the close up image. The wing however was heavily blended with Zestit and a torchon in the dark areas then left to dry, effectively the solvent evaporates,
A mixture of layers again, White (101), Cobalt Blue (142), Cobalt Turquoise (153), Light Yellow Glaze (104), Light Yellow Ochre (183)
The Breast Feathers
This is one of the more difficult elements which this pastel tutorial tries to address. I will be building several layers starting with white, always laying in the direction of the feathers. Remember that the Kingfisher has been diving and fishing so his feathers are wet which the second image above shows me starting to build the feather layers. Note that in image 3 I have added Zestit which shows as a darker colour which, over a period of 30 minutes, will evaporate and lighten.
The Final Touches
So here it is the final image. I wanted to give the finished work a distinctive look and the drips do it. In my mind it completes the composition and verifies the fact that the kingfisher is wet and has been fishing.
Want to buy a giclée copy?A limited number are available in the Myeyecon gallery.
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