The Cornell Lab Bird Academy › Discussion Groups › How to Paint Birds with Jane Kim › Draw: Northern Cardinal Feathers
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Bird AcademyBird AcademyShare your work! This forum is a space for you and others taking the course to share, comment, and exchange helpful ideas.You must be enrolled in the course to reply to this topic.
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I'm used to quickly sketching birds - this is probably the longest time I've spent drawing one, but the details really show. Not sure if I'll always spend hours on a drawing that I'll paint over, but I'll definitely take away the different feather groupings and key things to look out for when observing a bird to sketch!
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I had a lot of trouble with the wings but here we go
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This is my Northern Cardinal in my sketch book.
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My finished cardinal drawing!!! Please give me feedback.
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This is excellent Kaiah. Your hand eye coordination for an eleven year old, almost 12 is wonderful. You must have been drawing for a while. I don't think I could draw as well as this when I was your age. Keep up the good work!
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@Cheryl Thank you
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@Cheryl I really enjoyed making this! Could you or anyone else tell me the best kind of pencil to use for this drawing style?
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@Kaiah When I used to draw before I took this course I use regular pencils: HB, 2B and 4B. They had a wider lead and the lines were softer and smeary. The pencils never kept their points, always wore down, and you had to sharpen your pencils while you drew. My drawing style was always loose and sketchy. This is a more realistic, technical style and that is why I took this course. I wanted to learn to draw and paint a realistic bird. They recommended technical pencils. HB in 0.5 mm and 0.7 mm. They make a thinner line compared to a regular pencil, in my opinion, and the lead is always the same thickness. I preferred the 0.5 mm for its smaller size and it gave me a little more accuracy drawing the fine lines for the feathers and little details on the bird.
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@Cheryl Thank you! I will try to get these pencils if i come across any of them, so thanks again! I will continue to post my birds, so please keep an eye out! If you’d like, i can give yours feedback too! Thanks again!
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@Kaiah You did a nice job on the wing and tail feathers! I had an awful time with them. Info on pencils is helpful!
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I like it! I think the crest may be raised a bit too high, though. Just my thoughts!
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Pretty good!
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Hi Kim, What do you think of using a grid pattern to duplicate an image? Steve
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Uh, I’m not Kim, but I sometimes use grid patterns to start an image as well as copy them, so I think it’s a great idea! You don’t have to, though if you don’t want to.
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This is my first attempt at the Cardinal. The feathers are not perfect but I am really enjoying Jane Kim’s course. This style of drawing is so different from what I learned in art school over 45 years ago. You can use an eraser, and no line is permanent! I love this format too. I can draw alongside Jane and pause the video when I need to catch up. It is so much nicer then having my teacher in college standing over my shoulder watching every pencil line I made on the paper :-)
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I am enjoying it too! If you would like, you can look at my bird! I love birds a lot and I’m trying to get enough experience drawing them to become an ornithologist! It seems like you have a lot of experience with this, and i am only almost twelve years old, i was wondering if you could take a peek at my cardinal and give feedback. Awesome bird! Keep it up!
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@Kaiah I will post my bird in a few minutes.
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@Kaiah What do you say?
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@Kaiah @Kaiah. Sure I will have a look at your drawing. I was waiting for you to post it. Thank you for asking my opinion. Tag me when you upload it and I will have a look at it in a few hours as I am working on something at the moment.
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@Cheryl Thank you so much! I am a complete rookie at drawing birds, but i have drawn many other things in the past!
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Hmm, might need a few more adjustments...
The primaries certainly had my eyes crossed.
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Yes, they are pretty hard to draw! Difficult, but it seems you have accomplished most of the other feathers pretty well and distinguished, but also fuzzy, like they are in real life.
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The feet were the last major adjustment for me. Looking forward to moving on to painting.
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I think the wings ended up too short.
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This was fun getting into details. I still can't draw a straight parallel line!
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Te expression looks a little sad for some reason
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It should be about 3 eyeballs, from the top of the eyeball to the top of the crown going straight up, round the crown and then adjust the angle of crest up. That should help.
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What a cute bird! 👍🏻 Great job!
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Got the feathers in now!!