It seems that I am now drawn into sea birds. This is the third bird that I painted. It started with a seagull, then a pelican, now an albatross. It looks like a big version of a seagull. I also like its characteristics because its looks neat and fluffy. What I noticed among sea birds is that they have webfeet like that of a duck. It really looks rugged. They can also dive in the water. Isn’t that cool that you have access to the land, air and sea. Reminds me of parasailing that you are somewhere in between – sounds like a Jerry Cantrell song. I didn’t expect that Albatross are as big as human and the wingspan is up to 11 feet wide. They can travel really far and are described as nomads. They really are free spirited birds. I wonder if I see myself like an albatross.

About the painting, it is a bit challenging because I used a Monte Marte A5 canvas. The first challenge is that after applying Golden Artist Colors Clear Leveling Gel, it started to fold. So I put some scallop shells to hold it although it looks decorative. After it Golden Artist Colors Clear Leveling Gel dried, the canvas is still rough. Before I was able to smoothen it by applying Golden Artist Colors Black Gesso. This time I didn’t apply black gesso all throughout the series of my nautical acrylic paintings. The last challenge is the A5 is so small I wasn’t able to capture the tail of the Albatross. I wasn’t able to put a seascape because it is really small. Anyway I tried my bet to finish the painting.

For the color scheme, I used Prussian Blue and Cadmium Yellow to create the teal background . The ground is made of Raw Umber and Cadmium Red. I appreciated Raw Umber this time. I don’t use Raw Umber that much because of its opacity. But with its chocolatey color, looks like I’ll be playing with it a lot. For the albatross white feather’s it is made of Titanium White and Neutral Grey. For the wings and webfeet, they are Ivory black, Prussian Blue and Neutral Grey. The beak is a combination of Cadmium Yellow and Cadmium Red.

This could be the simplest of my painting but it received 688 views and 24 likes. Probably the Youtube algorithm started to like my seabird series. How’s that. After painting this Albatross, I wonder if i will make a series of sea bird paintings. It is fun to paint nature because you can learn lots of color scheme. Whether it is a landscape or seascape, a fish, a fowl or a beast that walks among us, there is an abundance of knowledge all around us. Nature is an infinite source of knowledge.