Let's Paint a Wedge-Tailed Eagle!

For the orange/brown feathers, I have used Burnt Umber (for the darks), Burnt Sienna, Red Gold and Cadmium Yellow Deep.  For the blue/grey feathers I have used Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna.  I started painting the feathers by using the appropriate mid-tone colour to basically outline each feather.  It's a slow, tedious process I know, but this is quite a big canvas, so detail and realism is essential.

By the time you have filled in the feathers with either a darker or lighter colour, it is too wet to sharpen any edges.  So at this stage I will leave it to dry, or go on to another part of the bird, and bring it into focus by adding darks and highlights later.