See gulls

I've just started painting a little study of a beach scene with a gull in the foreground. Sounds simple (and it kind of is really) but when you are painting wildlife it can be important that you get an accurate depiction of the species you are painting (and we're not talking about proportions here). In this case - there are a lot of sea gull species and if you are presenting to a wildlife savvy bunch they're going to know if what you have painted is right or not. If it isn't it can be a little embarrassing as you should know what you are painting. I've certainly made that mistake in the past and it isn't just features it's also their behaviour and habitat. In my case I portrayed a carrion-eating critter as a fierce predator. Whoops.

I've decided to paint a Common gull, so it needs to look like one. So what makes this grey-and-white gull different from all the other grey-and-white gulls? In fact how do you tell any of them apart? Thankfully I have a bird book and to me it seems there are 5 main things that are useful to look at: the bill, the head, the back, wingtips, and the legs.

The bill: this is usually red or yellow in gulls. Some have yellow bills with a red spot for young to aim for to get food from the adults. For me I have to remember the common gull has a shortish yellow bill, no spot.

The head: usually gulls have a white or black head, although the black-headed gull actually has a brown head. Common gull has a white head.

The back: how dark the grey is on the back can be useful, Herring gulls have light silver backs and very dark backs belong to Greater black-backed gulls.

The wingtips: most gulls have black wingtips with white flecks called 'mirrors'. Some lack the mirrors and a few even have white tips such as the Glaucous gull.

The legs: Sometimes this can be sometimes the only real visible difference. Gulls tend to have yellow, pink or red legs. Although the Kittiwake has black legs and the Common gull has green.

So sometimes painting wildlife isn't as always as simple as you think. But I think as an animal painter I should want to learn about the subjects I paint and it certainly helps you enjoy the natural world more when you know more about it!

Here's the process so far.

Roughing out the scene

Making the background more opaque, adding little reflection touches.

Working on some of the gull's details, adding some sand texture and shadow. I still need to work on the foreground, details in the gull and the lighting before I'm done.