The puffin photograph above is by David Hatton and is subject to copyright

Also known as “sea parrots”, puffins are stocky, short-winged, and short-tailed birds, with a distinctive black and white plumage and bright orange feet. Although there are three species of Puffins (two are found in the North Pacific), it is the Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica), which frequents our coastline and offshore islands, in the British Isles. It lives in the North Atlantic and only comes landward to breed, which it does in large colonies, nesting in crevices among rocks or in burrows in the soil, forming lifelong relationships (where life expectancy can be as old as 25 years) and both parents take turns to incubate the single egg and feed the young puffin (“Puffin”, Wikipedia).

During the breeding season, the bird’s bill appears large and colourful, giving its face the appearance of a circus clown and its comical antics in taking off and landing (due to its short wingspan), earned it the nickname of “clown of the sea”. However, after the breeding season is over, the birds’ coloured beaks are shed, revealing a small and duller bill beneath and when they return to the sea, their wings come into their own as they have been adapted to help the Puffins "fly" underwater.

It is possible to see the birds nesting on Skomer Island, off the Pembrokeshire coast, as regular boat trips are available from when they arrive around April, to when the Puffins leave, in July-August. The visiting Atlantic Puffins, have therefore become quite a tourist attraction and a "must see" sight when visiting Pembrokeshire. So we, at A J Ludlow Colours decided that as they are honoured guests of the county in which we now call home, they should feature in our new watercolour painting sets and, …....

.........they are so cute!

It was Meiru who first painted a single Puffin, then it became two Puffins and few more puffins, as it became obvious that painting them was fun. “Fun” was the concept around which our watercolour painting set was born and the first subject, selected. There was one more important factor that we wanted to build into our painting sets, something special and a complete experience, so in order to do this, we included in each set, the best materials and tools as standard.

Our “All you need to paint..” watercolour painting sets do contain all that’s needed to paint the two pencil drawn puffins on Saunders Waterford 425gsm watercolour paper.  By using Cadmium Lemon Yellow, Ultramarine Blue and Transparent Iron Oxide Red Professional Watercolour and 2 of our finest Chinese brushes, a traditional sable painting brush and detailing brush, both designs can be expertly painted following our individual 12-step printed painting instructions. There are also video painting demonstrations for each design available on our Youtube channel, which can be reached via dedicated QR codes. If you are a bit of a “Maverick”, then there is scope for you to include your own choice of background, but the important aspect of the painting set is the opportunity to try top notch materials and see what a difference it can make to your watercolour painting.

Figure 1: An alternative background, also painted with the three A J Ludlow Professional Watercolours: Cadmium Lemon Yellow, Ultramarine Blue and Transparent Iron Oxide Red.

Meiru, has designed each painting to include some of her favourite watercolour techniques and also by limiting the number of colours, includes aspects of colour mixing as well (as can be seen in the chart below).

Figure 2: Chart showing the hues possible when mixing the three A J Ludlow Professional Watercolours, Cadmium Lemon Yellow, Ultramarine Blue and Transparent Iron Oxide Red.

She is affectionally calling these painting sets, a ”watercolour lesson in a bag” not just because of their potential for developing your watercolour painting skills, but also because the sets are presented in a paper envelope (keeping the packaging’s carbon foot print low). 

So to give you a taste of our new “All you need to paint..” Professional Watercolour Painting set, have a go and paint an Atlantic Puffin with Meiru:

The image above is the single Puffing outline, which in the set, comes as a pre-drawn pencil drawing on Saunders Waterford 425gsm paper. 

1. Use a wet brush to paint Cadmium Lemon Yellow in the beak area and on the right foot. 

2. With clean water, use the big sable brush to wet the areas where the dark feathers will be. 

3. Use the same detailing brush as previously (containing Cadmium Lemon Yellow) to take a little bit of Trans. Iron Oxide Red and then paint the beak, under the eye and the feet.

4. Mix Trans. Iron Oxide Red with Ultramarine Blue to get a deep black colour to paint the puffin’s feathers. 

5. Use the black colour to the paint the areas where dark feathers are on the puffin.

6. Use the same mixed black colour to paint eye, dark strips on the beak and outline of the bird’s breast. 

7. Use a clean and damp brush to blend the outline on the Bird’s breast to give it a softer edge.

8. Use clean water with the larger sable brush to wet the background area. Make sure the brush is clean before using.

9. Use a diluted Ultramarine Blue wash to paint the background.

10. Mix Cadmium Lemon Yellow and Ultramarine Blue to get a green, then use it with the small detailing brush to draw the outline of the rocks and grass the puffin is standing on. 

11. Paint the ground with light wash of colour first.