Swan Wildlife

First, place the stencil for the entire swan on your painting surface and prime the surface with pro-color white. Once the paint has dried, place the detail stencil inside the bigger stencil. Spray the markings for wings, beak and tail with a light brown.

Remove the detail stencil, then spray the light gradients within the wings freehand starting on the wing's upper edge. In order to suggest plumage, spray a few upward lines starting on the wing's lower edge. The swan's neck, beak and eye area will also receive a bit of shading.

Spray the beak in orange. You may use the color directly from the bottle or mix some citrus yellow with a little bit of fire red. Spray some black around the eyes as well as on the lower beak and the legs.

You may now remove the template in order to continue spraying freehand creating the background. My substrate is a dark red metal plate. In order to better incorporate the landing swan into the background and create a dynamic atmosphere add a little motion blur to the wings, the beak and the lower part of the body using white. Also with white, spray a few additional details and lighting in order to add to the shape of the swan.

Next, spray the water's surface and the swirly splashes freehand, using white.

Expand the water surface with a bit of additional white mist in order to integrate the swan's legs and make the motif more dynamic still. With a mixture of brown and black, you can slightly darken background and let the swan stand out even more.