Draw a bird: the sketch
The sketch is as much a matter of glance as
of pencil stroke: you have to observe your model drawing birds, in the first place to respect
its shapes and proportions. This is the subject of this lesson, which we are
going to apply, not to a bird, but several, just to practice sketching subjects
of different proportions.
Choose your pencil to draw in.
You can sketch with the pencil you have at
hand, but the most practical is of course to use a pencil. The pencils are more
or less soft, or conversely more or less hard. It is indicated above: an HB is
"half-soft, half-hard", the H, 2H, 3H, etc. are harder and harder
and, conversely, B, 2B, 3B, etc. are more and more tender. Hard pencils hardly
mark the sheet and allow you to "grope" by multiplying the sketch
lines without risking too much blackening the sheet (and buttering graphite
everywhere). On the other hand, soft pencil sketch drawing can easily cast shadows, for a
monochrome drawing like the portrait of a golden eagle opposite. If you are
just starting, an HB will be fine.
Light, the stroke of a pencil!
In any case, the most important thing is
not to press the pencil. By pressing, you lose the flexibility of the wrist and
you deprive yourself of the famous "good pencil stroke" commonly used
to designate good designers. Also, you will have a hard time correcting your
mistakes, unless you use an eraser, which is not a good solution. Start this
lesson by storing your eraser in the back of a drawer. The rough lines that you
will have rectified will quickly be invisible once your sketch has been colored
or passed with a black felt-tip pen like the "light line", as the
garden warbler opposite.
A simple drawing method that makes children laugh.
It is all the more important not to press
your pencil as I am offering you a "stray line" drawing method: this
means that some of your lines will only be used to define simple shapes
(therefore easy to draw) which will guarantee the correct respect of the
proportions of your model, but will then be forgotten (and it will be easy
because let us repeat it, you will not have pressed the pencil). I named these
shapes "potatoes", hence the so-called "potatoes" method,
which has the merit of making my youngest drawing trainees laugh.
Ready for the lesson? So, let's go
Step 1/6: sketch the general proportions of the bird
A bird is rather easy to draw (compare for
example its silhouette to that of a horse, it is much simpler!). The general
appearance of the bird is defined by its head and body. These will therefore be
the first two potatoes in our drawing tutorial for beginners. The size, shape, orientation, and
distance between them are very different from one bird family to another and
you have to keep your eyes open from this first step. Position and size the two
potatoes (more strictly speaking, ovals) to find the general proportions of the
bird. Remember in passing that a sheet has limits and that, to avoid drawing on
the table, it will be smart to position these first elements at a good distance
from the four edges of the sheet.
This is what it gives for 3 families of
birds. From left to right: passerine (finch), duck, and wading bird (heron).
Step 2/6: add the tail of the bird
The tail ends most of the silhouette of the
bird. It also takes very variable shapes depending on the species, but we can
in all cases represent it by a simple shape, often a rectangle or a triangle.
Once again, you need to exercise your sense of observation.
Here are the respective tails of our three
birds. We don't have to mark the angles as much as I did on these examples.
Step 3/6: draw the bird's beak
To start, drawing the bird in the profile
is the easiest way to get rid of the delicate questions of perspective, which
is particularly true for the beak. But do not make the mistake of stopping your
momentum by stopping the line that separates the mandibles too early, as in the
sketch on the left, opposite. The bird's mouth continues on its cheek beyond
the beak, following the model on the right.
The beak is therefore represented fairly
faithfully by two triangles whose vertices 1 and 2 are located on the potato
that you have drawn to represent the head (this lesson turns to the geometry of
our Maths lessons). It is then sufficient to faithfully reproduce the
proportions of the beak: length, thickness, possible curvatures, etc. On our
models, I still stuck to very geometric shapes. It's up to you to do better on
the design you choose!
Step 4/6: represent the legs of the bird
Our feathered friends make it easier for us
once again by always sporting very thin legs, which can be represented by
slightly thick lines. The visible joint bends upside down from our knees (see
mark 1 on the heron). Imagine that it is, in reality, their heel, from which
then projects a single and very long bone (the tarsometatarsus, for close
friends) to which the fingers cling. There are usually three forward and one
backward, but watch out for species that hardly have a back finger and don't
forget the fins (two peculiarities of our duck). Note also that the bird posed
on a branch hides its back finger from us, as here our finch. To go to the end
of the demonstration.
Step 5/6: draw the eye of the bird
With the eye, we remain in geometric
simplicity, since that of birds is generally very round. It is still necessary
to endeavor to reproduce the correct size and position on the head. Rather than
in the full center, bring it near the front of the head and especially the
corners of the mouth, that is to say, the extension of the line of the beak, as
shown opposite. Indeed, ideas drawing birds need to see as close as possible to the tip of
their beak to grab their food.
Spawn the bird's wing
Let's keep the sketch of a bird in flight
for another lesson, as this presents some difficulties for the beginner …
although nothing prevents you from giving it a try from a model of your choice,
based on the principles exposed here!
Posed and in profile, the bird shows us a
single folded wing, which forms a sort of large open triangle. The key is to
properly position the tip, which shows the length of the wing. In large birds,
it can reach the end of the tail (which is the case with our heron).
And now? How to finish the sketch of the bird?
Here you are the author of a somewhat cubist work made of geometric shapes supposed to represent a bird. Well, know that the hard part is done! Without losing the sense of observation you have successfully exercised so far, refine the shapes and curves to sharpen - and embellish - your sketch. You will happily notice that the initial somewhat coarse shapes, while ensuring the correct proportions of the subject, will fade as if by a miracle, still without the use of the eraser, because you have kept in mind not to press on your pencil, isn't it?
This is exactly the technique I applied to
reproduce the robin below on the left. In the center, you find the sketch by
the potato method, where the contrasts are accentuated so that it is visible on
your screen; in reality, the lines are very light. Result: on the right, the
final sketch completely covered the first draft. One of the rare uncovered
features is that of the bird's "chin", too light to be visible …
not to mention that the coloring will make it disappear permanently.
Source: Cool drawing idea
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