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I agree that the flight feathers were a whole-mind exercise! Tip for everyone: don't eat a chocolate chip cookie while drawing, your hand might have some melted chocolate on it, lol. I see that I uploaded this on the feather groups section, but it is after the next video of individual feather groups.
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I love this, even with the chocolate chip smudge (at least you didn't get it on the bird lol)! It's looking very realistic, even at this stage.
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My basic shapes and feather groups of the beautiful Barn Swallow
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I found the proportions of this were really difficult to come true and I had to spend a while considering the angles of the wings, and the distance away from the foreground of each part of the bird. I was only happier when I combined Jane Kim's sketch with the photo reference whereas before I drew the cardinal first without consulting the instructor's sketch. While this might be a step back, it is only the second bird I've tried sketching. Again the really awful sketch paper (my papers are still in the mail thanks to holidays, international shipping, and Covid) in my really awful hands ended up being salt 'n pepper-y with my Staedtler stick eraser rampant (with its way too broad shaft). So I also learned about the necessity to look for a narrower eraser online. I have always envisioned art for artists only, as they could just 'see' directly what I could not--painting fast and oftentimes realistically. Now I am becoming aware of tricks--like getting geometrical shapes down on the page first, and using proportion, angles, lines. It is not just looking at the end image, which thankfully is static (heaven help with painting plein air), but understanding that there is artistic licence--an innate force within us finally expressing while simultaneously withholding itself. The complexity of the issues and the selection of alternative methods and approaches have as their corollary new fields of vision.
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Agree, I had trouble with dimensions also - the upper wing was hard to size since it is foreshortened, had to hold my pencil out and compare different parts of the drawing ... then as a last step, I enlarged the pdf image until I could see it through the paper and even after my measurements, I saw that my body thickness was also wrong and the tail was too large. Fortunately, it is easy to erase pencil!
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@Donna Yes...dimensions, proportions and that head! Out of desperation, I traced some of the outer edges, especially the head outline, to get it right. Then I was able to do all of the details myself. As a novice, I gave myself permission to do a bit of tracing and hope that as I improve, my eye will improve too. Sounds like many of us found this drawing quite a challenge but the results are impressive.
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I think you did a great job. It was really difficult to draw the overlapping wings. I used tracing paper and traced Jane's drawing of the barn swallow wings at least a dozen times to get the feel of how I might draw the wings myself. After I did this over a few days I was more confident to actually draw the swallow and wings myself.
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The wings feel wonky, but I think I am going to jump into feather groups as see if I can work it out.
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Helen, I'm new at this game, so cannot give the best advice (wouldn't it be nice if we got feedback from Ms Kim?) but you may find erasing some of the extraneous lines brings some clarification. You've really captured the movement of this bird and I feel that it has been encapsulated at just that moment when and where the bird itself is deciding what direction to take. This seems a real skill that I will have to move towards learning. It is like the paper isn't enough to hold the bird in place--it is off on its adventure. I like that. Jenny.
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I found the proportions of this were really difficult to come true and I had to spend a while considering the angles of the wings, and the distance away from the foreground of each part of the bird. I was only happier when I combined Jane Kim's sketch with the photo reference whereas before I drew the cardinal first without consulting the instructor's sketch. While this might be a step back, it is only the second bird I've tried sketching. Again the really awful sketch paper (my papers are still in the mail thanks to holidays, international shipping, and Covid) in my really awful hands ended up being salt 'n pepper-y with my Staedtler stick eraser rampant (with its way too broad shaft). So I also learned about the necessity to look for a narrower eraser online. I have always envisioned art for artists only, as they could just 'see' directly what I could not--painting fast and oftentimes realistically. Now I am becoming aware of tricks--like getting geometrical shapes down on the page first, and using proportion, angles, lines. It is not just looking at the end image, which thankfully is static (heaven help with painting plein air), but understanding that there is artistic licence--an innate force within us finally expressing while simultaneously withholding itself. The complexity of the issues and the selection of alternative methods and approaches have as their corollary new fields of vision. 
The wings feel wonky, but I think I am going to jump into feather groups as see if I can work it out. 
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