A studio service
Feather, soft then sharp.
A bird is the perfect watercolor subject because it is soft in exactly one direction. The breast wants wet-on-wet and a lost edge; the primaries want a dry brush and a hard one. Get that contrast right and the bird reads instantly. This workbook is built around that single lesson, repeated across species.
N° 01By family
Songbird to heron.
Grouped by how they are painted rather than by taxonomy — which is to say, by how much water each one wants.
01
Songbirds
Robin, wren, goldfinch, kingfisher. Small, round, and mostly soft edges — the place to start.
02
Waders & water birds
Heron, egret, duck. Long lines, reflections, and the problem of painting a white bird on white paper.
03
Raptors & corvids
Owl, hawk, crow. Dense feather pattern and the hardest edges in the set.
N° 02How a workbook works
Not a coloring book. A lesson you paint.
Every bird exercise arrives in three parts, so you are never staring at a blank page wondering where to start.
01
The finished painting
You see where you are going before you start — the completed piece, printed at full size, so you can match value and edge as you work.
02
The washes, in order
The same painting broken into its stages: first wash, second wash, detail. You paint one layer, let it dry, and turn the page.
03
A base to paint on
A light printed guide on the facing page. Paint straight onto it, or use it as a drawing reference on your own paper.
N° 03Made to be painted on
Laid out for wet media.
Every page is single-sided, so water never buckles the exercise on the back. Margins are wide enough to tape down, the printed guide lines are pale enough to vanish under a wash, and the whole file is 300 DPI so a home printer gives you a usable surface. Print on any 200gsm+ cold-press and it behaves like a proper block.
N° 04Investment
Pick your pack
Starter
$9.99
10 exercises — enough to learn the technique and decide if the series suits you.
- 10 painting exercises
- Finished reference painting for each
- Printable line base to paint over
- 300 DPI PDF · A4 + US Letter
- Instant download
Workbook
$19.99
30 exercises — the full progression, from first wash to finished piece. The usual choice.
- 30 painting exercises
- Finished reference painting for each
- Printable line base to paint over
- Colour-mixing chart for the palette used
- 300 DPI PDF · A4 + US Letter
- Personal use licence
Complete
$39.99
60+ exercises — every subject in the series, plus the licence to sell what you make from it.
- 60+ painting exercises
- Every reference painting and line base
- Colour-mixing charts for all palettes
- 300 DPI PDF · A4 + US Letter
- Commercial licence for KDP & Etsy
N° 05Questions
The answers we give most often.
- Are the birds anatomically accurate?
- Yes — posture, proportion and feather groups are drawn from reference rather than stylised. That matters here, because a bird with the wrong wing length reads as wrong even to someone who cannot say why.
- Which species are included?
- Robin, wren, goldfinch, kingfisher, heron, egret, duck, owl, hawk and crow, among others. The Complete set covers every species in the series.
- Do I need to draw the bird first?
- No. Each exercise includes a printed base to paint straight over. The drawing is there so you can spend the session on the paint.
- What do the packs cost?
- $9.99 for the 10-exercise Starter, $19.99 for the 30-exercise Workbook, and $39.99 for the Complete set with 60+ exercises and a commercial licence for KDP and Etsy.
N° 06Other watercolor workbooks
Start your book
Start with the robin.
Download the bird workbook and print it — 300 DPI, single-sided, one species per exercise.