Puffins - Design from start to finish

by Daniel Mackie January 30, 2020

Two puffins paining with seascape

Puffins are funny looking birds! I have been meaning to add one to the collection for a while but could not get the composition right. Having two together seemed to be the solution. That beak was the problem for me! So a bit of heavy stylisation was the way forward.

Here you can see the first couple of sketches.

Puffin sketch - The DM Collection

Then after I had drawn it out on watercolour paper (somerset Waterford 300gsm NOT) I added Cerulean Blue and Ultramarine.

Puffin painting in progress with seascape

Once had the blue more or less down it was onto the Quiderchrine Gold, This colour is awesome! this is on the other is other side of the colour wheel to the blues so really works well!

Puffin water colour in progress with ocean interior

I wanted to keep the colour palette limited blues and yellows and avoid a colour riot. So I had to be careful wit the beak and the feet, but in the end they kind of balanced each other out!

Find out about the Puffins on Drangey Island in Skagafjörður in Iceland on this post

Daniel Mackie

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