The Cornell Lab Bird Academy › Discussion Groups › Nature Journaling and Field Sketching › Drawing What You See – Upside Down Drawing
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Bird AcademyBird AcademyWas upside-down drawing difficult, or was it fun? Did you view the subject as what it was, or a collection of shapes, lines, or something else?You must be enrolled in the course to reply to this topic.
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I'm a pretty confident in my skills but drawing the bird upside down was a challenge. The results, however, were surprising and gratifying.
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and after photo. I was very frustrated at first and found it tedious. When I finally let go and just focused on the shapes, etc I was able to relax and finish the lesson. I was surprised when I flipped the drawing over...perhaps just felt I had actually accomplished it.
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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.
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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!
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Not the greatest job but I tried my best.
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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!
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You got the proportions really well! The amount of detail on the sparrows breast is very accurate!
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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.
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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.
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This was a real challenge but I learned a lot from the exercise.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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Looks great!
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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.
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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! :)
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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.
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I know what you mean about the eraser. Maybe next lesson I won't need to erase as much....but I doubt it.
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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!
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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!
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Had great fun just disassembling this into shapes and drawing from there.
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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!
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