Drawing Birds Tutorial - Bittern in Dip Pen and Mixed Media

I posted a while ago a YouTube video is a mixed media drawing of a Bittern. I just love how much character these birds have. They're a secretive bird related to herons, and their habitat is reed beds. There aren't a lot of them about and they deserve more people to know about them.

I used dip pen for this illustration because I was interested in capturing character rather than producing a realistic or scientifically accurate representation. Dip pen is something I've picked up again lately because I love how expressive it makes my work.

I used a hot press paper, Fabriano 5, is a paper I love and use for many things. It takes pen, layers of watercolour, and coloured pencils extremely well. The 300gsm one doesn't really need taping down unless you plan to do a lot of wet into wet.