![]() ![]() Learn more and see more of her work at her website .Ī version of this article first appeared in Artists Magazine. Kaspari created artwork in the Middle East with the conservation organization Artists for Nature, and has collaborated with biologists around the world. Her field drawings have been shown in the Museum of American Bird Art, and her paintings have been exhibited in the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum’s “Birds in Art” show. 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).ĭEBBY COTTER KASPARI is an artist, writer and naturalist who sketches and paints birds from life. Here are two of my favorites: The National Audubon Society Puffincam and Canopy Family Panama Fruit Feeder cam. The main point of the demonstration is that our minds are already pattern-making. It takes about five minutes and quickly, clearly demonstrates how little effort is really required to make meaningful, easy-to-read images. Webcams streaming from inaccessible places such as eagle nests and remote puffin colonies are entertaining resources. Squiggle birds is a quick exercise that you can use to get people stretching their visual thinking muscles. 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. And, of course, you can hit “pause” whenever you like. ![]() Motion studies from recorded or live-streamed birds are great for those times when you can’t be out in nature. 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. Here are eight methods that will set you up for success. With time and practice, your drawings naturally will become more polished, but for now, think of this as a new way to pursue a love of birds. Instead, give yourself the initial goal of making organized scribbles - scribbles with beaks and feathers. Try not to make tight drawings as you learn how to draw birds. Binoculars are great if you have them, but if you don’t, start with birds that can be approached closely. I use a mechanical pencil - no sharpening required, which would just slow me down. They’re easy to see and study and, with practice, not too difficult to draw.Ī sketchbook, binoculars and pencil are my primary pieces of equipment. Birds are possibly the most visible of the world’s wildlife. There might be pigeons on telephone wires, house sparrows in the hedges or geese on the golf links. You can work from photos, but one of the rewards of drawing birds from life is that you’ll get to know them well.Īlthough they go unnoticed much of the time, we live our lives surrounded by birds. Birds rarely hold still, so catching them on paper requires a combination of observation, good reflexes and a fast pencil. Learning how to draw birds from life is as much a sport as it is an art. Practice drawing the same species repeatedly to gain familiarity and train your eye. ![]()
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