9 December 07

Sketching Birds All Day

empidonax flycatcher: pen and ink We drew birds today at John Muir Laws’ bird illustration workshop hosted by Yolo Audubon. We started off with one-minute sketches from slides, of which this was the first.

directional sketch, pen and ink Get the posture line, he said. Then rough in the body and head masses. Stop at this point to check the proportions while there’s still time to do something about them. Then get the bill/eyeline, tail, leading wing edge, angle of legs and feet…

empidonax flycatcher: pen and ink After a workout on bills, breasts, wings, tails, and feet, we did the original flycatcher again, for a minute. The directional lines were done in non-photo blue, an animator’s trick.

It was fantastic. I wish I could persuade every birder I know that this is worth doing, even if you “can’t draw a straight line” (there aren’t so many straight lines on birds, y’know.)

Posted by at 09:18 PM in Bird Body Bits | Link |

  1. Your drawings are beautiful! I can tell that you are drawing what you love.


    — am    10. December 2007, 07:22    Link

  2. This workshop & your sketches look wonderful… I looked at his schedule of classes – nothing too close by soon, but if you guys were planning to travel to any of them, I’d be interested in making a group-trip. Or maybe the Point Reyes extravaganza in March (multi-day, though?)

    AND, we got your card yesterday, LOVELY!

    Andrea


    — andrea mummert    12. December 2007, 09:02    Link

  3. That before and after is better than a Charles Atlas ad. Superb.


    — rr    12. December 2007, 17:14    Link

  4. Thank you all. It was a great day. I’m still trying to digest it all!


    — Pica    12. December 2007, 17:21    Link

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