How to Draw Birds

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Once you’ve got to grips with the basic form of a bird, as we show you in this tutorial, how to draw a bird, you can apply these techniques to other types of birds, too. The first step is to capture the angle of the body, and from there – construct the rest of the sketch around these initial lines. Birds are complex, and drawing is about simplifying. Begin your drawing with large shapes to establish proportions and posture—an oval for the body, a circle for the head, a line to show the angle of the bill and eye. Imagine the point on which the body would balance, and put a vertical line for the feet right there. Draw these lines lightly and use them as a guide. Then use stronger lines as you build up the shape. Practice seeing simple shapes on a live bird, and experiment with putting them on paper. Soon you'll be able to see the bird in your sketch even when all you've drawn is a few generic shapes. Smooth the Feathers Be sure to also study and draw live birds whenever you can. While photographs are helpful for learning technical details, the only way to really get to know birds is to watch them in life. Learn by Doing I took slow-motion video of yellow-tailed orioles sparring in a Panama marsh, making sketches from which to paint Yellow-Tailed Orioles (oil on canvas, 20×16) in the studio. To learn more, I recommend The Laws Guide to Drawing Birds by John Muir Laws (Heyday Books, 2015), and Drawing and Painting Birds by Tim Wootton (Crowood Press, 2011).

I offer a free a step by step guide (similar to this one) on bird drawing for everyone who follows my newsletter ( sign up here). Birds, in general, are built using circles. But it’s easy to make your bird too round, so look for the angles where the different parts of the bird meet: head meets body, body meets tail etc. Once you’ve got to grips with this, then your bird will start taking shape. Try a few drawings. Watch some birds. Try a few more drawings. Watch some more. Have fun. I guarantee your drawings will get better. But don't worry about that. Drawing birds is about so much more than just drawing birds. Enjoy the satisfaction of seeing the world a little differently and understanding it a little better. Trying to draw moving subjects can be hard, but it can be learnt and will get easier over time. Some of the sketches I like best in my sketchbooks are those that contain an element of motion and spontaneity. You can practice drawing from life with videos or webcam footage, or simply jump in and sketch birds in the field. Drawing birds – the step by step technique Studying bird anatomy will help you draw birds more accurately. Feathers grow from specific regions on the bird’s body with bare skin between them. These feather groups define the shape and contours of a bird and the patterns on the feathers relate directly to the underlying feather group. This animation shifts between a drawing of a Song Sparrow,its shape without feather patterns, and a diagram emphasizing the feather groups.As Neil Buchanan says, when sketching from life (or photographs) draw what you see – not what you think you see! The shape is the most important aspect when drawing birds. If your shape is accurate, then the bird will seem realistic, even without detail. As for the right drawing techniques, you go from basic shapes to more detail. A basic understanding of drawing is helpful. If you’re someone who just wants to make a beautiful bird watercolor painting, then you’ll probably end up in the first category soon – because the more you watch birds, the more you will get drawn into their daily activities, and observe details and just enjoy their bird-ness. Having a good understanding of birds will in turn help you to make better drawings of them. Motion studies from recorded or live-streamed birds are great for those times when you can’t be out in nature. And, of course, you can hit “pause” whenever you like. I sometimes connect my iPhone to a fieldscope in a technique called digiscoping, allowing me to get multiple poses from a single video and watch a bird move naturally.

Most of your illustration attempts will not result in pretty pictures, but don't let that discourage you. Measure your success by the insights and understanding that come from the process. Each drawing is a demonstration of what you know about a bird and will also reveal what you don't know. With practice, you can fill those gaps in your knowledge. As you sketch more, you will learn more about each species, and this will in turn help you to identify birds in the field. All in all, sketching birds is rewarding and fun, and it will bring new sketching opportunities each day. When drawing the tail – the feathers overlap so that the middle feather is on top, then fan the feathers on either side. So, use this formula when drawing the birds tail. Learning how to draw birds from life is as much a sport as it is an art. Birds rarely hold still, so catching them on paper requires a combination of observation, good reflexes and a fast pencil. You can work from photos, but one of the rewards of drawing birds from life is that you’ll get to know them well. The short answer to this is: because it’s a lot of fun. If you’re already a birdwatcher, I don’t need to convince you of anything, because you’re probably already enjoying birds simply for what they are. Sketching birds can add enjoyment and increased knowledge to this wonderful pastime – sketching requires you to observe closely, and sketching will help you keep an active memory of what you saw in the field.Webcams streaming from inaccessible places such as eagle nests and remote puffin colonies are entertaining resources. Here are two of my favorites: The National Audubon Society Puffincam and Canopy Family Panama Fruit Feeder cam. Happy bird drawing! Further Reading