hummingbirds are fun to paint!
paint a watercolor ruby-throat hummingbird

• Learn how to paint a hummingbird with easy steps.

The Ruby-throated hummingbird is the most wide-spread hummingbird in the United States. We will be painting him visiting a fuchsia flower.

How to Paint a Hummingbird with watercolors

Hummers are very popular. Here are some of my hummingbird paintings.

"Broad-billed Hummingbird" with delphinium flowers in a loose, colorful style.

"Tiny Treasures" are the baby hummingbirds in the nest watching for Mom to come.

Costas are seen in the southwest. So this "Costa Hummingbird" is visiting a cactus.

Enough of my paintings, let's learn how to paint a hummingbird with watercolor!

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get ready to paint

materials

This painting is on a ad - 8x10 Aquabord. It is a sturdy, archival surface for watercolor paintings.

You may certainly use ad - watercolor paper.

Do your watercolor paintings with ad - soft brushes made specifically for painting watercolor.

colors

This painting uses a semi-triad color scheme of yellow, red and green.

All of my watercolor paintings are done with tube watercolors.

• Lemon Yellow or New Gamboge
• Permanent Rose
• Thalo Green or Sap Green

how to paint a hummingbird

Draw the hummingbird on paper and transfer it to the painting surface with ad - graphite paper.

If you are good at drawing, you may do the drawing directly onto the painting surface.

Start painting the green back and beak

• Mix a light yellow-green and start painting on the top edge of the head and body.

• As you move down the head and body, start painting with a darker green (less yellow).

• Put some dark (mix red and green together to make black) on the underside of the chin and just below the wing where there will be a shadow.

• Paint the beak and eye with the same black. Use less water, so the color will be darker.

• Leave the top-side of the beak unpainted and leave a white highlight in the eye.
  
  

Darken top of body and highlight the beak

• Before the beak dries, use a damp brush and pull diluted color to the top side of the beak. It appears lighter than the bottom because the light will be hitting the top of the beak.

• Darken the head and body by adding more green.

• If the beak and eye dry too light, add more black.

• Leave a bit of white around the eye to differentiate it from the feathers. Many hummingbirds also have a white patch behind the eye.
  
  

Paint the gorget and tail feathers

Now we get to paint where its name came from, the "Ruby-throated Hummingbird".

• Paint his gorget with red.
  

• Use lighter red near the light and darker red away from the light under his throat. Mix a darker red by adding a bit of its complimentary color - green.
  

• Put some green out on the tail feathers.
  

• Add dark to differentiate between the tail feathers. Mix the darker green by adding red.
  

• Shadow the underside of his belly with a diluted beak color.
  
  

Start painting the wings

• Paint the wings with a diluted version of the beak color.
  

• You may put darker shadows between the feathers.
  

• An optional way is to paint the wing feathers all the same light color.
  

• When the color is almost dry, put some lines to indicate the separation of feathers.

• There is some green that goes from the body up into the base of the wing.
  
  

Paint the hummer's underside and the flower

• Put some color down onto the body, but leave a white space below the gorget.
  

• There is also a bit of white under the body just in front of the tail.

• He has a couple of little black feet tucked up under his body.
  

• Paint the flower with shades of red that match the ruby-throat of the bird.

• The center petals of the flower are light yellow and the shadows are the same grey as the bird's wings.

• Put some green sepals under the flower to tie it together with the green on the hummer

hooray! the painting is finished.

• You may want to put a wash on the background.

• Dampen the area around the bird and flower before applying your chosen background color.

You may put a wash on the background.

now it's your turn!

Now that you know how to paint a hummingbird, you may want to paint a Ruby-throated Hummingbird or one of the other types of hummers.

See photos of the various types of hummingbirds seen in the United States.

happy painting!