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You don't have to be an artist to keep a Sketch Book. A Sketch Book style Journal helps you keep better records of your birding observations and adds to your enjoyment of Bird Watching. Start by sketching the common birds in places where they are used to people. Don't try for perfection and don't take time to erase. Just jot down the important concepts. Make short notes around your drawing to clarify details and to mention any interesting behavior. Notes should include name of bird, where seen and date seen, colours of plumage, beak and feet. Notes on behaviour and habitat are useful and interesting to look back on.
Materials: An A5 sketchbook, soft graphite pencil e.g. 2B. A small field set of Watercolors is useful for making colour notes.
Method: Study the proportions of the bird. Compare the length of the beak against the length of legs and feet, the size and position of the eye, the length of the tail against the length of the wings etc. Draw what you see & don't make anything up. If you can't see the tail and you add a tail of the wrong length or colour, you will create a different species.
Sketching Method: Using light 'search' lines draw the basic oval shapes of head and body. Sketch lightly and quickly. Plot the angle of body and head, the position and angle of the tail, the position and tilt of the beak and the position of the eye in relationship to beak. Use horizontal and vertical check pencil lines. Don't use a rubber yet.
Use a 2B pencil very lightly at first to refine the shape of the bird. Look for the facets where you think you see curved shapes. Change to a softer pencil or press more heavily to develop the drawing and add tone. A small piece of kneadable rubber or a small piece cut from a white rubber, can be used to remove unwanted lines such as the original basic shapes, horizontal & vertical check lines & 'angle' lines, but don't be too worried about eliminating all the original 'search' lines, as it is a sketch book and these add interest and sometimes a suggestion of movement.
Join Janet Flinn at an Art Workshop
'Bird Week' at Kingfisher Bay Resort Fraser Island Queensland
May 10th to May 17th 2008
Personal tuition. Tips & Techniques for Sketching with Pencils, Pen & Watercolour. Create aVisual Diary.
Examples and More tips on Sketching Birds
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