Painting Eyes, Nose and Beaks

I always like to paint in the eyes of an animal or face first.  It's probably just a psychological thing, but for me it immediately gives the object life and character, which makes it easier to paint in the rest of the body.

When painting eyes, leave the darks until last so that you don't muddy up the colours.  I put in that lovely blue reflection first and worked my way outwards.

In this picture, the light is shining through the beak making the tip a little translucent.  Don't add just white to make the beak lighter here as too much white tends to wash out the colour.  I used Lemon to make the colour lighter instead.