Gray Seagull (acrylic painting)

Hi friends!

Today I tell you how I drew this picture - gray seagull proudly walking in the sand.
I made this drawing on Russian platform Golos to one art contest.
I live far from sea but I very like seagulls, but I live far from sea, because I use a ref from internet in my work.

Sketch by pencil

Materials which I used: watercolor paper, some colors of acrylic paints, three brushes different sizes.

A, yes... and medium for acrylic paints.

I started my drawing with paint bucket of background.
The sea behind the seagull I painted with a mix of blue and grass green, above it is more green, below it is more blue.
On a lighted side of the seagull, I maked the background a bit darker. In order to highlight the bird even better add blue (cobalt).
The sand is obtained by mix the colors of red and canary yellow.
I prescribe the foreground with this mixture, and the back one with ivory added to make it lighter and less contrast, according to the tonal perspective.

Then I painted most intense details of the seagull - beak, legs, wings, feathers on the tail.
Outlines areas where there will be shadows.

In next step I mixed a white paint with a bit gray and drew a shadow around the eyes and under the beak. Darker gray with the addition of black highlight some feathers on a wings.
Further, I added a bit of gray to ivory to painting shadows at a bottom of the abdomen (it is warmer because it's reflexes from a sand).
I drew a visible eye and a shadow of an eyelid of another eye.

Finally, some little details - to correct a shadows on the wings, on a legs, to trace an eye, a glare on tip of a beak. I Added some large pebbles or lumps of sand in a foreground
And, of course, the falling shadow under a seagull's legs is a contrast and short one, because the day is sunny and a bird is practically under direct rays of sun.
And since the shadows in the drawing turned out to be mostly warm, I make it a mix of red and cobalt, closer to warm violet.

So nice walking seagull I did))

So nice walking seagull I did))

Thanks a lot for your visit and donations))

Have a nice day!
Regards