Oil Painting for Bird Carvers
Learn to paint beautiful bird feathers by watching up close on your schedule, at your own home.
Not interested in an online course? Don't want to spend all your time on Facebook? No problem...
You have the option of purchasing the video tutorials from my course-- at a highly reduced rate.
What's the catch?
No bonuses. No coaching. No support.
Just the video tutorials (and the feather templates) on a USB drive. Only $99.
Braden Maddox | Huntingdon, TN
"I had no experience other than just watching just your videos but I was able to have an understanding from how you
were explaining stuff. Had I not taken your course, who knows how long it would have taken me to
figure out.I was able to get better results than I imagined I would have."
You've spent hours carving a beautiful bird...
and you want to paint it with oils... now what?!? Maybe you've painted your birds with acrylic paint in the past, and you don't know where to start.
Maybe you've never painted a bird, but you admire the birds you've seen other carvers paint with smooth feather transitions in oil paints...
Maybe, you've tried oils but you're frustrated with sloppy lines, or you've tried to blend your paints and all you're getting is a smeared mess.
It's time to learn some new skills, but:
Where do you start?
There just isn't much out there for bird carvers using oil paints, is there? Instructions, I mean. Sure, there's out-of-print books. And even if you get your hands on the books, then what? It's kind of like trying to learn to drive by reading about it. Imagine if, when you learned to drive, like most of us, you took a class in high school. But this time, all instruction was held entirely in the classroom, behind a desk. You go through the textbook, take a few multiple choice tests, and boom-- someone throws you the keys to the car, and it's time to jump right into the city, navigate the interstate, and go visit grandma. Except,
You're driving solo.
That's kind of what your choices are for learning oil painting. Did you ever see anybody on an internet forum say "just spend 100 hours with a brush and figure it out?"
And what about trying to glean information from other carvers, who are having a deep discussion with each other about the best medium to use when painting? How in the heck are you supposed to learn from that?
You don't.
Do you want to know the secret behind learning to paint with oils on your birds?
It's not a favorite blending medium. It's not a list of colors you need to purchase, or even a brand of brush. You learn to oil paint by watching someone who already knows what they're doing. You sit beside them, or stand over their shoulder, and notice how they use the brush. What they mix into the paint. What order they do things in. The kinds of things that are just too hard to explain with the written word.
I've put together a video course that shows you how to paint. Stand over my shoulder (the camera's perspective)-- and watch EXACTLY what to do to achieve simple, beautiful feather blends.
In the videos, I make a few HUGE assumptions:
✔️ Your neighbor isn't a world champion bird carver/painter.
✔️ You're starting from ground zero, with no prior knowledge of oil painting.
✔️ You're ready to learn to paint by DOING.
At this point, I thought you'd like to see what is in the tutorials.
What's in the videos?
Skills
- Individual feather blending
- adding lighting effects with paint to enhance the 3D-look
- smooth gradient blends over large feather groups
- primping your feathers to breathe life into them and make them "POP!"
- head scratching to simulate fine feather details
Tools & Preparation
- sealing and priming your wood
- laying out your feather groups using a grisaille technique to separate your lights and darks
- steps to take on your bird to protect your delicate paint brushes!
- using alkyd based paints along side your tube oils to speed drying time and effect final paint finish
You'll also get a lot of tips & tricks along the way to SIMPLIFY painting with artist's oils.
Wait, give it to me in plain english...
Total time spent viewing video lessons: approximately 3 hours. Total time spent on mastering your own technique: (much, much more than you anticipated!)
Here's what you need to know about the course:
FIRST and FOREMOST... you do NOT have to have any experience with oil paints to follow these lessons! One of the things I pride myself in is that I am able to break the problem down for you as if you had exactly zero experience-- nothing left out! You also do not need to be an anatomy savant-- meaning-- if you don't know what the name of a feather is, you won't be left behind! I have provided feather templates for you with the course, so if you're still struggling at drawing the major feather groups, or don't even know what they are... you CAN DO THIS!
The video lessons are filmed as I paint on flat practice boards. I did that for three main reasons:
✔️ So that you could follow the exercises right away, without having to stop and carve a bird first to paint on
✔️ To make the videos a higher quality: by painting on a flat surface, you can see exactly what I'm doing without a feather curving away from the camera, down the side of the bird or up over the back
✔️ Practice is paramount! Flat boards give you a quick and easy way to work on your paint strokes, blending techniques, and paint colors between birds, and there is no worry about feather size or body attitude of the bird you are painting
The feathers I paint in the lessons are from a gadwall duck. I chose this species because the colors are simple variations of greys. Most of the painting uses only titanium white and raw umber. You can paint along with these lessons in any colors you choose--
the techniques are not specific to one species of bird...
I strongly suggest, no, IMPLORE you to get out your brushes and paints and practice boards and follow along with the lessons. This is a HANDS-ON course. You will learn to blend feathers the absolute best possible way- by virtually looking over my right shoulder and getting a close-up view of my palette, my paint mixing, brush strokes, and blending! The ONLY better way to get this level of instruction is to be physically with me or another teacher-- and to be able to interrupt and ask questions.
Jacob Passmore | Abilene, TX
"With Dave's instruction, I've watched my art quality go from a 2nd grader with a Crayon, to a respectable piece of work. It's worth the time, effort, and money to have Dave's instruction. It's invaluable for the progression I've received!!"
Philip Boyles | Kansas City, MO
"I thought you made it simple enough that I think anybody could do it and it didn't feel intimidating."
Wouldn't you like to:
✔️ learn simple, attractive anatomy so that your birds look "right"?
✔️ be proud of your feather blends?
✔️ finally understand how simple and fun it is to paint with oil?
✔️ SEE the process in real time, rather than read about it in a book or on the internet?
I can help you with all of these things-- I kept all of this (and more) in mind during the planning and recording of this course.
Don't take it from me:
"The way that you had it laid out, the progression was very good: starting from the simple line brush stroke to finishing up with the wet-on-wet blending on the hen side feathers. For me it was an easy progression to follow and work your way up to a little bit more complicated techniques."
Keith Floyd | Athens, AL
"We were working on the parts of a gadwall, and geez, that would be one of those birds that I would always be very reluctant to paint because there are a lot of different shades and colors. But then after going through the steps for each individual part... if I just take my time, I can replicate that. That was kind of a big a-HA! moment... I can do that!"
Tony Banks | Prince George, VA
"Last spring Dave invited me out to his house for a weekend of carving and painting. I’m somewhat of a beginner having only carved a dozen or so hunting decoys. Dave had three redheads carved, sealed, and primed ready for paint. He gave each of us one and walked us through each step explaining every detail along the way as we painted our own. The finished product was a fireplace mantel worthy piece of art. We also carved a complete head step by step. The amount of new knowledge that I left Dave’s house with has since changed my carving and painting for the better. Every one that is just starting out or that just needs to better theirselves in certain areas could definitely benefit from Dave’s knowledge. Thanks again Dave for a wonderful weekend of learning."
Terry Hightower Jr. | Porter, TX
If you've come this far and haven't bought the videos yet,
You probably have questions. Here are the answers to the most frequently asked questions I've had about this offer so far...
Is there a timeline I have to follow to take this program or can I do it in my own time?
You watch the videos when YOU are ready!
Is there a guarantee, in case I feel it’s not right for me?
I’m offering a 30-day, no questions asked money back guarantee. Simply ship the USB drive back to my address-- you'll pay for return shipping, but I'll issue a full refund when it arrives.
What if I’ve got no clue as to where to begin, don’t have the materials, and have never painted anything- I’m a total beginner- will this course even help me, or do I need to start with private coaching first?
The videos are designed for absolute beginners who have never painted anything. I will cover what materials are necessary, where to get them, and how to save money by avoiding unnecessary purchases.
Do I need to carve a specific bird to follow along with the videos?
Not at all! All the painting CAN be done on a bird, but I encourage all students to follow along with the exercises on flat practice boards. This is a quick and easy method to follow along and learn by DOING. Besides the practice boards, it's important to know that the techniques I will be demonstrating are useful for painting any bird... and not just a duck, either! My demonstration boards will be based on a gadwall duck, but you could follow the same steps to paint, for example, a green-winged teal, just using different colors!
What kind of format is the program in, and are there worksheets for the lessons?
The course is in video format. As someone who has struggled with learning oil painting techniques from books, I strongly believe that the easiest, most enjoyable way to learn is to watch it being done.
I will also be including a few PDFs on the USB drive-- feather templates for tracing, materials list, etc.
What kind of support do I get if I purchase the videos?
None. While I work one-on-one with students of my online course, this is not a course. It is simply the video information. The information is self contained, but I'm not offering any additional support.
Is there anything else I should know about the videos?
If you don't have a computer to plug the USB drive into, or don't know how to play videos on your computer, this offer is NOT for you.
One last thing...
You should know that after I’m done buying band-aids, I donate 10% of all my profits to the National Audubon Society, a non-profit organization that works to defend wild birds and protect their habitat.
My course comes with a 30-day, no questions asked guarantee. You have nothing to lose!
So if you're ready to take your painting to the next level, enroll now!
"It can get a little bit overwhelming when you look at a whole bird, painted, and you see a lot of stuff going on...
but when you put it on the [flat practice] board like you did, it was very easy to say, all right, this is the exact technique we're putting together.
Keeping it with minimum distractions is what made it easier for me."
