I received this class as a birthday gift I was elated I love birds. I live in Mexico Celestun Yucatan, I read and listen to Jane as she explained the process of Painting Birds, I'm a self taught Artist been painting for most of my life. When I returned to the US for a visit I bought all the supplies that were needed. I do watercolor, gauche and colored pencils. This is my first time using the medium liquid acrylic. I really learned a lot from doing the drawing for birds. I practice and drew other birds that I want to do Chickadee, humming birds, MotMots and by doing this it increased the drawing skills and really identify the different parts of birds quit frankly I will never look at birds the same way. The wings were a challenge but I kept trying I drew the barn swallow three different  times before I settled on this.

Feather overlap was brutal!  I'm surprised of how well I've done with it anyway.

The overlapping feathers are a challenge. Having fun & like the class!

I struggled with the feather overlap.  Needs more work but enjoying the class.  So much to learn.

01/30/23 Barn Swallow. There is much to improve upon. 

Those wing feathers - oh my goodness   I don’t know if I’ll ever see those correctly  My eyes were crossing!!!  

Wow! I am getting sludgy--it looks better in real life! My scanner croaked at the better image (not shown here) and refused to upload. This was really really difficult, and I find it hard to not do details. I notice others are facing this challenge. I didn't hold this up to the light at all, but relied solely on the reference photograph, and again, on the instructor's final rendition, in conjunction with the feather layering images. Difficulties included facing challenges as I'd erased the 'maximum' marks that framed the original drawing, and trying to shorten the body once the negative space was considered (the body remains too long even with adjustment). The clarity that I anticipate we need to transfer the image is here somewhere. I'm hoping I can ignore a lot of the lines when this is transferred to watercolour paper. At least it looks like a swallow. My partner told me he could identify the bird, but he was looking at Jane Kim's image not mine. So I am having fun mixed in with a few groans.

Individual flight feathers quite a challenge - I have never tried to draw in such detail before.  It was interesting to trace the reference photo then lay it over my completed freehand drawing and see where the differences were - despite all the careful measurements.  But I think this captures the essence of the bird well enough to progress to painting.

Such a helpful lesson!