There’s a chance all three of these birds are really the same bird. I mix and match whatever photos I take to create an interesting composition. In this case, I used three separate bird photos and two different sunflower photos to create this drawing. This started with two birds, but I added a third when it seemed too empty.
I’m finding that my drawings are ending up in the middle key, meaning not very dark and not all that light. I’m not getting much of a value range. Something to work on. I’m enjoying drawing the birds, though the branches and foliage have been more difficult with graphite than with ink.
It’s been fun working on landscapes in Smoothie’s class. Can you tell that he’s from the UK? There are castles, mills, fields with hedgerows…
My new best friend is the Pentel Multi8 mechanical pencil. I have another but it was filled with a mish mash of lead brands. This one, I dedicated to the awesome Uni 2mm graphite, my favorite in lead pencils. I was thrilled to see they made the 2mm leads, too. I haven’t put it down since it arrived.
Smoothie77 is a great teacher. Even though he also teaches in watercolor and ink, I’m still firmly immersed in graphite. I’m able to follow the lessons about creating mood and detail and then turn around and apply them to some of my own ideas. Below, I followed the tutorial on drawing the little Chiffchaff and then tried some of the same techniques using a photo of a Northern Flicker I had taken.
I keep practicing landscapes with trees, foliage, and grasses. This was a challenging tutorial, and it got a little blurry near the end.
When I need a break from tackling landscape, I return to birds. This starling was gobbling crab apples, probably stopping on its way south, and I took about a dozen pictures of it.
The two vignettes on the top were Smoothie77 tutorials. I learned how to leave items out of photos and simplify rather than include the overwhelming amount of details from real life. The bottom two are based on my own photos. I like them both but realize that creating a nice, dreamy border does take some skill and planning–next time!
