Tutorial - Flamingo to a Stork

Today I have a couple of ideas to show you. Firstly, we're going to use colour to transform one of the flamingos into a stork, and secondly, we're going to stand that stork in a shallow pool of water.

To transform our flamingo into a stork is a simple matter of choosing different colours. Rather than the bright pink of the flamingo, we're going to use a range of cool greys to add shadows to our white stork.

The darkest grey I'm using is a C3 (copic marker), which is applied under his belly, under his wings and neck. I'll slowly work this colour out with C2, C1, C0 and then the 0 marker. It's important to work the colour all the way out to white rather than leave a line. A graduation of grey will look like shadows rather than grey feathers.

Colour the beak and legs with orange, yellow or a darker grey. I've used copic markers YR16, YR14 and YR12. You'll notice that the brighter, more vivid colours will provide a further contrast for the grey shadows making the bird's body appear lighter.

Now we're going to add a pebble bed for the stork to stand on. Start by colouring various sized ovals with the C3. Make sure there are a few partial ovals under the stork's feet... you don't want him floating around in the water.

Add a curved line with a C5 marker along the bottom of each of the ovals. Use the tip of the marker and work along the edge of each oval, adding the darker grey over the top of the lighter grey.

Use a C4 marker between the C5 and the C3 to blend them slightly. Don't worry too much about the blending as we're going to add more colour over the top.

Use a C7 marker to add a shadow below each oval. The shadow is "underneath" each stone. Dot in some smaller pebbles here and there.

Fill in the white spaces with the C6 marker. Don't colour over the ovals, but do blend into the C7.

Use the lightest blue you have to add water over all the stones and half way up the storks lower legs. I've used a BG0000. Don't overwork the colour or your stones will start to mottle and the darker grey ink will break down.

Add a few streaks of BG000 to the water to give the impression of ripples.

Apply a slightly darker blue to the section of the stork's legs that are under water. I've used BG10. Again, don't overwork the colour or it will mottle - just add a layer or two.

Time for some penwork. Add a tiny line across the stork's legs where they meet the water. Don't add it right at the top of the blue area, but slightly lower so that the stork looks as though it's legs are surrounded by water. Make a few curved lines to indicate ripples.

To finish, add some grasses or reeds into the background, just above the waterline. Keep the colours very light so they don't stand out too much - I used YG00 and YG0000.

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