Stony Brook Herring Gull

MEDIUM: Digital Painting | STYLE: Painterly Realism | SIZE: 8 x 10 | ORIENTATION: Landscape | TOOLS: Procreate, 13″ iPad Pro, Apple Pencil Pro, Giclee Fine Art Archival paper and ink | AVAILABILITY: Prints available.

The Herring Gull, a common sight on Long Island beaches, lakes, parking lots, and fast food restaurants, is smart, determined, and beautiful in flight. Here, it rests on a pylon at Stony Brook Wetlands on a clear day. This piece was painted from a photograph in Shadowmyst Art’s personal collection.

ARTIST’S PROCESS: Stony Brook Herring Gull was painted in Procreate on a 13″ iPad Pro using the Apple Pencil Pro. This work replicates traditional painting’s depth and texture through layered digital brushwork. It begins with careful structural drawing, followed by multiple rounds of color blocking, value refinement, and detail work on feather texture to capture the species’ temperament and appearance. Shadow and light are created using multiple Procreate layers and specific brushes, and the background was painted to match the photograph of this bird in its environment.

CHALLENGE: This Herring Gull was standing in full mid-day sun, which created strong shadowing across many of the white feathers. Maintaining the pure white appearance of the feathers while addressing the strong, deep-colored shadows required a multi-step process. Layers were first created to paint the feathers across the body, including the bird’s darker color patterns. Additional layers were used to paint subtle patterns beneath and just above the feathers, defining their shape along the body. A final layer added blue-grey hues in a watercolor wash technique over the shadowed areas, creating the defined shade cast by the strong sun shining from directly above the gull.

SUBJECTS AND THEMES: Wildlife — Long Island Wildlife — Wildlife Artwork — Nature — Herring Gull — Birding — Coastal Wildlife — Painterly Realism — Procreate Artwork