Sketching birds from life (1 Viewer)

CCRII · Feb 28, 2009

Hello,

I can draw really well from reference (Photographs/still subjects). However I really struggle with moving birds. I know I should be drawing from life and from memory. Is it possible to learn this or should I just realize that I am not a true artist? My biggest problem is freezing a pose of a moving bird inside my minds eye. When I look into my minds eye (memory if you will), I see fuzzy images that do not stay long enough for me to draw from. Is there any advice you can offer? Its a real road block with me.

Should I just be trying (even if I fail miserably) to keep "seeing" the subject for as long as I can and trying to get enough down on paper from a particular pose even if it is only 10% of the real life details of the subject? Does this make sense?

jomo · Feb 28, 2009

I think we all struggle with this -- the human brain is not a very good camera. I've been sketching from life for years, and I still find it immensely challenging (but then, that's why I like it so much!)

With moving birds, you'll never get everything you see down all at the same time. There are a few strategies you can employ to get around this. One is to keep several sketches going at once -- most birds will keep falling into the same poses as they move about, and you can slowly build up each sketch with each new bit as you observe.

Another is to quickly jot down a sense of the bird's overall pose using very few lines and shapes, which you can then flesh out from memory or additional observation.

A third is to draw as much as you can without looking at the page. Those little breaks between watching your subject and watching your pencil can be very disruptive.

I usually like to just sit back and observe for a little while before I begin, if possible. Familiarity and practise is really the key. When I start a session with an unfamiliar subject, the first sketches are always god awful (and they certainly don't end up here |:d|), but by the end of the session, or over several sessions, things start to improve. Or I toss my sketchbook off an overpass. One of the two.

CCRII · Feb 28, 2009

jomo said:
I think we all struggle with this -- the human brain is not a very good camera. I've been sketching from life for years, and I still find it immensely challenging (but then, that's why I like it so much!)

With moving birds, you'll never get everything you see down all at the same time. There are a few strategies you can employ to get around this. One is to keep several sketches going at once -- most birds will keep falling into the same poses as they move about, and you can slowly build up each sketch with each new bit as you observe.

Another is to quickly jot down a sense of the bird's overall pose using very few lines and shapes, which you can then flesh out from memory or additional observation.

A third is to draw as much as you can without looking at the page. Those little breaks between watching your subject and watching your pencil can be very disruptive.

I usually like to just sit back and observe for a little while before I begin, if possible. Familiarity and practise is really the key. When I start a session with an unfamiliar subject, the first sketches are always god awful (and they certainly don't end up here |:d|), but by the end of the session, or over several sessions, things start to improve. Or I toss my sketchbook off an overpass. One of the two.

Thanks very much! That is great advice! Your certainly someone who's work I admire and can grow from!

Woody · Feb 28, 2009

I'd certainly agree with Jo on sketching witout looking at the pencil for an initial 'capture'. What I find it does is give your hand and mind a 'feel' for the angles and shapes that you are seeing. When you look at the scribble you've made it probably won't look as you imagined it did whilst you were drawing but that link between what you imagined and what you actually drew enables you to flesh the lines out, drawing it as you saw and imagined you were drawing it at the time. It's hard to explain but you get used to the idea eventually, you look at an agle or shape that you've recorded and think 'I drew that angle there but it should have been more acute' or 'in reality that shape was more rounded', and so on. The point is that you make a recording on the paper which helps with the fuzzy snapshot in your mind.

I think this is what you are getting at in your last paragraph so it seems that you're well on the way to answering your own question already! And, of course, practice, practice, practice! Keep enjoying sketching and try not to beat yourself up about it when it all goes wrong, as it does for all of us!

Mike

Andrew H · Feb 28, 2009

Its somthing that i struggle with as well, which is why nearly all of mine are either sleeping or feeding.... (or dead).
My sketchbook tell me that ive made leaps and bounds in the last year since I started, and as Mike says, keep practicing, Its only paper......

Sketching birds from life (1 Viewer)

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