Capturing the Essence: Techniques for Bird Artists

By William T. Cooper

Once described by Sir David Attenborough as ‘the best ornithological illustrator alive’, William T. Cooper was a generous mentor to many wildlife artists. His willingness to share his knowledge and skills is epitomised in Capturing the Essence: Techniques for Bird Artists.

First published in 2011, Capturing the Essence is a step-by-step guide that offers practical advice to observing birds, retaining the essential information and then painting them from field notes and sketches, photographs and other observations.

The author takes the reader through the processes involved in oil painting, watercolour and acrylic techniques, and a piece of art is built up in stages to demonstrate the skills required in each of these media. While the book concentrates on birds, much of the general basics will be relevant to painting a wide variety of natural history and wildlife subjects.

This re-release edition will ensure a whole new generation of artists can learn and benefit from William T. Cooper’s timeless knowledge and expertise.

• Language: English
• Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING
• Release date: Jun 3, 2024
• ISBN: 9781486318636

William T. Cooper

William T. Cooper AO (1934–2015) originally painted landscapes and seascapes but turned to painting birds because of a lifelong love of natural history. He collaborated on many bird monographs with Joseph M. Forshaw. In 1990, William was awarded the Philadelphia Academy of Science (USA) Gold Medal, and in 1994 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for his contribution to art and to ornithology. A collection of his original paintings is owned by the National Library of Australia and many others are in private collections around the world. Other books illustrated by William T. Cooper include Pigeons and Doves in Australia (CSIRO Publishing, 2015) written by Joseph M Forshaw, and Australian Rainforest Fruits: A Field Guide (CSIRO Publishing, 2013), written by Wendy Cooper.

Book preview

title

© Wendy Cooper (copyright owner for the work of William T. Cooper) 2024

All rights reserved. Except under the conditions described in the Australian Copyright Act 1968 and subsequent amendments, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, duplicating or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Contact CSIRO Publishing for all permission requests.

William T. Cooper asserts their right to be known as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of Australia.

ISBN: 9781486318612 (hbk)

ISBN: 9781486318629 (epdf)

ISBN: 9781486318636 (epub)

How to cite:

Cooper WT (2024) Capturing the Essence: Techniques for Bird Artists. Re-Release Edition. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne.

Published by:

CSIRO Publishing

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Front cover: Raggiana Birds of Paradise

Title page: Plumed Whistling-Duck

Back cover: Red-capped Robins

Edited by Peter Storer

Cover design by Cath Pirret

Text design by Andrew Weatherill

Layout by Andrew Weatherill and Envisage Information Technology

Printed in China by 1010 Printing International Ltd

CSIRO Publishing publishes and distributes scientific, technical and health science books, magazines and journals from Australia to a worldwide audience and conducts these activities autonomously from the research activities of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of, and should not be attributed to, the publisher or CSIRO. The copyright owner shall not be liable for technical or other errors or omissions contained herein. The reader/user accepts all risks and responsibility for losses, damages, costs and other consequences resulting directly or indirectly from using this information.

CSIRO acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the lands that we live and work on across Australia and pays its respect to Elders past and present. CSIRO recognises that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have made and will continue to make extraordinary contributions to all aspects of Australian life including culture, economy and science. CSIRO is committed to reconciliation and demonstrating respect for Indigenous knowledge and science. The use of Western science in this publication should not be interpreted as diminishing the knowledge of plants, animals and environment from Indigenous ecological knowledge systems.

The paper this book is printed on is in accordance with the standards of the Forest Stewardship Council® and other controlled material. The FSC® promotes environmentally responsible, socially beneficial and economically viable management of the world’s forests.

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Contents

Acknowledgements

A tribute to William T. Cooper

Introduction

Part A – the basics

Materials

Aids

Some principles of painting

Anatomy of birds (for the artist)

Sketching from life

Measured drawings

Black and whites

Ideas

Part B – the paintings

A painting in watercolours

A painting in acrylics

A painting in oils

Conclusion

Glossary

Recommended reading

Acknowledgements

From memory, it was a fellow bird artist Peter Marsack who first suggested and encouraged me to write this book. I am so glad he did, because it was an interesting and enjoyable project. I hope the book lives up to his expectations.

As the manuscript neared completion, the first drafts were sent to friends for criticism and suggestions. All contributed and most, if not all, of their comments were incorporated into the final text. I am greatly appreciative of their ideas and the time they have given to the project. The order of their names is alphabetic and is in no way a reflection of their contribution. They are Ben and Joan Bentrupperbaumer, Marilyn and Peter Chapman, Graham Harrington, Michel Kibby, David Mackay, Peter Marsack, Hugh Nicholson, Nan Nicholson and Penny Olsen.

Greg Scott, the owner of the Raggiana Bird of Paradise painting, kindly agreed for me to use it as the demonstration piece for the ‘Painting in oils’ chapter.

I am most grateful to my wife Wendy who, apart from many useful suggestions, diligently typed the manuscript and scanned all of the artwork. I thank her for all her help and encouragement through a process that took much longer than was expected.

Thanks to John Manger for considering the work worthy of publication.

William T. Cooper

2011

A tribute to William T. Cooper

William T. Cooper (Bill) was a wildlife artist of international standing who almost single-handedly raised the profile of a genre that rarely gets recognition as ‘real’ art in Australia. He produced an astonishing body of high-quality work while maintaining real enthusiasm for his subjects, which extended well beyond birds – landscapes, habitats, plants and invertebrates all interested him. He was an extraordinary field-sketcher and had an impressive knowledge of natural history. Working with his botanist wife, Wendy, Bill produced definitive paintings of the flora of North Queensland rainforests, as well as characteristic details of habitat around the world in his well-known bird paintings for the monograph series authored by Joe Forshaw. While much of this taxonomic work was in watercolour and gouache, he was also an expert working in oil and acrylic. He always had a long waiting list of commissions and consistently sold out at solo exhibitions.

Bill was a modest, humorous and generous mentor to many wildlife artists who shared his interests. I was lucky enough to be one of them, and Bill and Wendy hosted me at their rainforest home in Tropical North Queensland when I looked for his advice on oil painting. It was during this visit that we discussed Bill writing a ‘how-to’ book on painting Australian birds. This seemed like an obvious gap in the market to me, and it turned out that Bill was already well advanced in thinking about its structure and content. The resulting book