Such a useful exercise. I refined my tree frog gesture drawing. The final result is hardly a work of art, but it was a hugely valuable exercise - I looked closely at the subject and did a lot of trial and error. I'll have to keep trying this with my field guides.

The techniques are helping a lot. The measurement and negative space techniques are very helpful in getting the proportions right.

so, when i first started refining my gesture drawing, i was a little overwhelmed by just how unrefined and inaccurate my gesture was; now i can see how crucial it is to get the general drawing accurate before even thinking about the details! However, it proved to be pretty good bones to work off of, and i very much enjoyed adding the details once i got into it, especially the feather patterns and texture! Getting a good understanding of negative space was definitely helpful, as I already used it little bit unconsciously. Proportions are probably one of the most difficult drawing skills to master, but also one of, if not the most, important. Also, gesture drawing was surprisingly fun and helped me to loosen up a lot. P.s — i added a picture of the original gesture, a more refined drawing, and the finished result. :)

I used a blending stump for the shading (easier and quicker than to just use pencil. I really like how this turned out.

Looking at the negative spaces is the most helpful technique for me, because it helps me to check out the ratio between different patterns of shapes. I would like to see the overall collection of the shapes and the relationship between each shape. However, I found the "upside-down" technique is more difficult for me. Because I don't usually draw birds in the upside-down orientation.

The Negative Space exercise helped me get the proportions and positions ofthe bird more accurate

I enjoyed refining and adding detail.  All the techniques are really helpful.  I look forward to gaining more experience.

Okay, first of all, refining that gesture drawing was very challenging. More than once I found myself thinking that it’d be easier to draw the bird from scratch :D I chose that bird (the swamphen) because I thought it was the most ‘accurate’ of all the 60-sec and 30-sec photos. Yet I had to erase and draw from scratches several parts of the subject (body, legs, wings) because they were disproportionate and/or misplaced. Paying attention to proportions and negative space was a game changer. The former helped me loads with the legs (I had to shift the neck and breast to the right when I noticed that I couldn’t draw the leg right - so I also rectified the size of the head as it was way too narrow!). The latter was decisive when it came to drawing the legs. I couldn’t keep the right space between the legs at knee height, and I soon realised it was because I’d drawn the left foot too big, which forced me to draw the right leg too long. I adjusted the two and the right proportions materialised on paper. A super useful (though frustrating here and there - but that’s part of the game!) exercise. PS. I took a photo of both the gesture-drawing version and the refined version.

This took a lot of effort but rewarding as I did not think I could do it.  The negative space as well as checking the proportions/scale were very helpful.

I used a new image and drew a 60-second gesture drawing from it. At first, it seemed that nothing would come of it. My exercise book is too small to add details easily. However, the result is better than it appeared at first. Darkening certain points clarified the image and gave it shape; I'm getting better at it. Still, getting the proportions right takes practice. I chose a picture where it was not easy to use the negative space. After all, I'm quite satisfied. This was an encouraging task.

This was fun to work on.   I went back to the lesson on gesture drawing and did a lot more gesture drawings and picked out a couple I wanted to work on.  Can't say I was real happy with the upper drawing , I was however quite satisfied with the bottom one.  I used all the drawing skills we have worked on so far and can't say one was more helpful than the other, they all work together.  Fun course!!

First, I really enjoy everyone sharing their sketches. It's nice to know that my struggles seem to correspond with most of yours. I would appreciate any feedback you might have. I started sketching the wren using the upside-down method. When I turned it right-side up, I started correcting the obvious errors. The body is still too short, but maybe next time, I can get it closer.

I wanted to challenge myself with this project and I think I may have challenged myself a bit much.  I really think that doing gesture drawing off of a picture is not a strong skill for me.  I have been practicing on the birds around my house, but am drawing the same birds repeatedly (especially hummingbirds.)  I think attempting to get proportions correct is coming along, and I am trying the measuring technique and it is helping a lot. I need to learn which features are important to get correct and which I can just give an impression of. I also need a lighter touch on the pencil. I know this picture still needs a lot of work, but you should see the original. Haha  

I found using my pencil to get general measurements and angle helpful to get the general shape and negative space and shading to fine tune it. 

The short sketchy lines are getting easier, as well as erasing as you go! Proportions are still difficult as well as marking and getting textures right. 

It took me several tries to get the wings of this great blue heron to my satisfaction. What I have learned from this module of the course really help!

The first picture is the gesture drawing of my wren. Second after putting in more details. I almost gave up the bill. I had to redraw it several times. I am proud of how patient I am becoming and motivated to try over and over. After finally figuring out the proportions I am super happy with how it turned out. Thank you so much for all of this great tools! I noticed such a big development in my drawing skills through this course!

negative space was a game changer for me