The shape breakdown was definitely helpful and insightful. Some of the angles of my lines turned out really wonky though! At some points I felt like I was really concentrating well on what was there, and then I would catch myself thinking of the feathers or the talons as themselves. I need to practice more to see my subjects in many different ways.

A very challenging exercise for me. My brain wanted to see this as an upside down bird. I had moments when I could focus on the shapes and relationships and other times when my mind would freeze up! This made me understand that I need to relax and refrain from drawing something that isn't really in front of me. That was cool!

Very cool exercise! with surprising outcome :-)

I really enjoyed doing this. It kept me out of my head in trying to get the relationships of the background and bird proportional. I tend to overthink it. Used the negative space lesson on this one too, so seeing the other shapes around the bird gave me good information. Your finished drawing would be a good coloring book page.

My body is a little thick but I got the head direction right.  This was hard but a good way of learning how to focus on shapes.  

I did this while chatting with a fam member. It made it actually easier to have my brain uninvolved in the ‘knowing’ of what type of bird...I focused on observing where the feet crossed the branch, where the tail feathers emerged, how many feathers, stripes, etc. I did get overwhelmed in the middle with the unpatterned shapes of the belly. That’ll take some practice! Overall not bad!

This exercise was difficult for me, the shapes in the middle made me a little dizzy. Overall I like how it came out but I am still having some difficulty with negative space, and keeping my focus on the shapes instead of trying to get good talons🙃

I was very surprised by the results when I turned the page upright! It was a lesson in patience as well.

Proof! I really did draw the song sparrow, upside down! This was a challenge, since I like to rough out my subject using basic shapes, and then add detail and proportions as I go. Not this time! I started at the tail feathers and worked my way around... Thanks goodness for erasers... I'll have to go back to this one to finish the markings on the breast and underparts of the bird, but I cheated and turned my page around... am pleased that the little guy isn't wonky-looking! I really wanted to look at the subject as an overall shape, but I forced myself to see it as a bunch of smaller shapes connected to each other... this has been the most challenging exercise yet!

When I draw I always like to look at the subject as individual pieces of a total puzzle.  How does one piece connect to another.  This is also what I tell kids who say they can't draw.  This makes the process more fun and enjoyable.  I had a lot of fun doing this and when I was through I thought the body was to chubby but when I flip the image right side up, it looked really good.  I am happy with how it turned out.