I'm a pretty confident in my skills but drawing the bird upside down was a challenge.  The results, however, were surprising and gratifying.

Here is what I drew. I started from the right because I’m left-handed and didn’t want to smudge my work too much. By ti I By the time got to the twig I was tired, so it’s the weakest part. It looks pretty good upside down, I think. At least it looks like a bird — whether or not it could fly is another question!

Not the greatest job but I tried my best.

I’ll be honest, I was very skeptical here - not with exercise (the opposite!) but with myself :D and also with having to draw from a line-based image of the bird instead of the actual bird. The drawing experience was the most frustrating of the whole course so far, but also, I have to admit, the one that left me most surprised with the result. Throughout the exercise I felt like I was drawing stiff, tentative lines, I felt awkward and stiff - or so I thought. But the more I drew the more I noticed how the line endings would join seamlessly when different parts of the image came together. That’s when I saw the potential of this exercise, even greater than I thought before I tried. So thank you!

It took me 2 hours, and quite a bit a erasing at times. I used  proportions, negative spacing, and relation of one form to the other. At times, I knew it was a bird, but at other times, it was more a geographic form exercice. I am quite pleased with the results. I learned quite a bit about beak insertion on the head.

Wow, my proportions were way off! but it does resemble the image, just that the body of the bird was not large enough.  I must not have measured correctly.

This was a real challenge but I learned a lot from the exercise.

This was a really fun challenge! I unfortunately can't break the picture down into shapes and draw from one side to another. I still need to do a general outline and sketch of the subject. I think it looks awfully sad rightside-up. Maybe it preferred seeing the world upside-down!

Drawing upside-down required a lot of concentration. It forced me to look at the shapes. It also required me to use other skills we have practiced, like drawing without constantly looking at the page.

This was a fun task, although the brest design was a bit tedious. The result is surprisingly good, although not all patterns and shapes were completely successful. When I was drawing upside down, I could only see patterns and shapes, not the bird.

I enjoyed this and learned a lot.  I found I used all the "tools" I have learned so far and incorporated it into the drawing.  Parts of it were a little frustrating, such as getting the shapes in on the bird's breast, but it was fun and I was happy with the results.

it was fun and I found it easier once I loosened up. Proportions need work, but I did see it more as a collection of shapes rather than a bird which was really useful. I also probably took my time more than I would, normally. No bad thing! :)

There was a lot of work to do, and I had trouble with long, slender curves and ovals. However, it ended up better than I anticipated.

I thought that this exercise was very difficult.  I tried to look at it as shapes in relation to each other.  I was also trying to keep proportion in mind.  It was very challenging especially the breast shapes. However, my bird came out pretty well and probably better than if I had drawn it right side up.

This was both difficult and fun. I got caught up in the small details, and forgot to pay attention to negative  space and proportions. It's hard to pull everything together!

This was much harder than it looked! It took me a very long time and I think I may have used up most of my eraser… I found getting the perspective correct difficult, and took forever drawing the wing.

Like the previous contribution I found this exercise to be very useful, but to begin with, I was mildly irritated. However, once I worked out that something useful was coming out of it was able to continue and sooner than I imagined this was the result. It might even be my best bird yet!

well this was quite a test for my patience. But I loved the exercise. I was able to focus just on the shapes more and more and even tho I got tired and felt like just giving up on the drawing I pulled through and got rewarded with a beautiful sparrow!

Had great fun just disassembling this into shapes and drawing from there.

Worked very intensely at relating all shapes and sizes. Needed the eraser quite a few times when I realized I has sketched a piece without reference to other parts for size and negative shapes. Had to slow down even more, and look for relationships and negative space to find where I should continue the drawing. Result is very satisfying. My brain was adapting to the process more and more as I advanced with the drawing. A real training in looking for the true information for shapes to draw all contained in the relationships and space between the shapes. Thanks for this great exercise!