The Cornell Lab Bird Academy Discussion Groups Nature Journaling and Field Sketching Drawing What You See – Upside Down Drawing

    • Carolyn
      Participant
      Chirps: 17
      img312 upside down
    • Carolyn
      Participant
      Chirps: 17
      img312
    • Carolyn
      Participant
      Chirps: 17
      Challenging but excellent exercise.  Not because of the upside down image, but most difficult part was inserting the shapes inside bird while considering size, shapes and area allowed.  Also had some issues with pencil following shapes over paper in journal.
    • Bonnie
      Participant
      Chirps: 2
      challenging.  head and body proportions were of.  Body to fat.
    • Francesca
      Participant
      Chirps: 9
      IMG_0900 This took awhile, and I really felt like I had blown the proportions out incorrectly for awhile,  but I thought it looked pretty good in the end.
    • Gerda
      Participant
      Chirps: 10
      7F244D89-DF79-49FB-BB4A-5F2A78FF4C90_1_105_c I did it - yeah!!! it is amazing - I remember my grandson drawing upside down when he was really little, he turned out to be a cartoonist. This is the first time I have tried something like this. I thought it was fun.
    • Jill
      Participant
      Chirps: 7
      It took me a long time to draw but it was a great exercise.  The most difficult part for me was the body with all the different small shapes and trying to fit them into a larger space.  I tried to cram all the tiny shapes in. unnamed (1)
    • johanna
      Participant
      Chirps: 2
      image
    • Charlotte
      Participant
      Chirps: 2
      Trying again.great challenge! 185AC586-A465-4620-984E-D66A7C08E77F
    • Charlotte
      Participant
      Chirps: 2
      71E1CF13-6857-478C-B66E-800FE6EA4675
    • Susan
      Participant
      Chirps: 4
      As I have done more and more art and taken a few lessons I am finding I think I have a serious visual perceptual issue. I have that same facial recognition disability Brad Pitt has, I sometimes do not recognize even familiar people until I hear their voices. So I really struggle with this negative space, upside down drawing exercise as I have a huge issue with spacial relationships and proportion just looking at things the way they are, I think I have really poor visual memory. So this just does not work for me.
    • Nancy
      Participant
      Chirps: 7
      I was surprised at how good the bird really looked when I turned it right side up. However, all that looking from one thing to another made me kind of dizzy.IMG_0598 2
    • Martha
      Participant
      Chirps: 4
      I found this exercise to be more difficult. My brain wanted to go back and draw the whole outline of the sparrow. I stuck with the process. I really focused on the negative space and it made a huge difference as far as proportion and the relationship of the wing, head and tail to the body.  I am pleasantly surprised with the results.image
    • Margaret
      Participant
      Chirps: 10
      This was challenging but an interesting exercise.   I still saw the image as a bird, rather than being able to focus just on the shapes.  Keeping track of where I was with the lines on the branch and the breast plumage was hard, but focusing on the negative space and where the lines linked up on the body was helpful.  I was pleased with how the drawing turned out. IMG_1722
    • Bernadette
      Participant
      Chirps: 15
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    • I found the markings on the belly and feet to be the hardest. I think it turned out better upside down than it would have right side up. IMG_2452
    • Karen
      Participant
      Chirps: 19
      This was much easier than I thought it would be initially.  The picture looked complicated at first but when I just concentrated on the shapes and their relation to each other, it was really manageable.  I think this turned out a lot better than if I had just tried to draw the bird. Upsidedown Sparrow
    • May
      Participant
      Chirps: 25
      Drawing upside-down was interesting. I looked at shapes and negative spaces. Arcs were challenging to draw. I learned so much about the subject. When I turned it to look at the final drawing, I was amazed. 1-   2-
    • Christopher
      Participant
      Chirps: 9
      Almost like paint-by-numbers... I tried drawing each shape, making sure that their sizes, proportions, and locations accurately represented how they were shown in the illustration. Very happy with the results of this exercise. IMG_0706IMG_0706_mod
    • Janine
      Participant
      Chirps: 21
      Wow - that worked out way better than I expected! Starting to put together ideas of negative space, propertions, and really seeing. It's nice to see a little progress :O)
    • Janine
      Participant
      Chirps: 21
      Upside down drawing
    • Zachary
      Participant
      Chirps: 1
      sparrow This was fun and a challenge! For me, the hardest part was probably being patient and not trying to cut corners and start drawing random shapes, especially on the body. It was hard not to rush! So this was a good exercise for seeing shapes and for just focusing and being patient.
    • Kathleen
      Participant
      Chirps: 28
      upside-downDrwg I'm resubmitting this, because I don't think this registered the first time. This is a great exercise to shift to the right side of the brain and think less literally! I'm sure I also trained my eye to see proportions better, as I worked very slowly and thought as much as possible about shapes and relationships. I did find it a bit tedious, though. At one point, I even thought to myself, 'Wow, one of the stripes on the chest looks like a two headed prehistoric antelope!' (LOL)  I was pleased when I finished it and turned it right-side up and it did look a lot like a sparrow! Great brainteaser and probably a really good anti-aging exercise for those of us over 65:)
    • Barbara
      Participant
      Chirps: 11
      This was the toughest task so far! It is well timed to bring us back to truly seeing. I feel proud that I took my time with it. image
    • Cindy
      Participant
      Chirps: 14
      I think I saw both what it was and the shapes and lines depending on what part I was drawing. It didn't seem any more difficult than drawing right-side up but that is still difficult for me. IMG_7979