• Christine
      Participant
      Chirps: 10
      IMG_2855
    • Ria
      Participant
      Chirps: 22
      I loved this practice. Starting with the quick sketch allows for such freedom and a loose quality. Following with refinement makes the piece really pop and highlights the bird's natural beauty and motion. I find focusing on negative space invaluable! It's such a fantastic, easy way to confirm proportions and accuracy. Getting the right position is still a struggle for me but the negative space really helps with that. RVK_SedgeWren
    • Nancy
      Participant
      Chirps: 16
      Getting the proportions right.  Sketchy lines has helped me with this.  CFA106C5-960A-44FF-9299-95639AD34464
    • Dawn
      Participant
      Chirps: 25
      I am finding the mark making and value shading is coming more easily the more that I practice it.  I find myself naturally shifting into looking at the negative spaces more often too.  Taking proportion measurements is something that I would need to do more intentionally.IMG_1206
    • Cindy
      Participant
      Chirps: 2
      CF4796C8-4C39-4967-A892-71D458CB85C246C3A235-09A4-4BE3-90D0-DCBDE97F28D5 I really enjoyed re-learning gesture drawing. That is the key to field sketching success! My big ah-ha moment! Drawing is definitely a skill. Although I consider myself to be a life-long artist, I am very out of practice and I feel rusty. One of my goals with this course is to establish more regular drawing time back into my life. I like the cross-hatching inside the mouth for darkness.
    • Patricia
      Participant
      Chirps: 7
      Marsh wrenCoyote Going back to the quick drawings and correcting the details was fun - I was amazed at how many things needed tweaking. But was also pleased that I could see the problems and fix them.
    • Beth
      Participant
      Chirps: 15
      Assigning value is hard but practice sessions like this are helping. Most helpful has been to focus more on the negative space. IMG_3049
    • Jacqueline
      Participant
      Chirps: 14
      I would say the two most helpful techniques refining the sketch were  proportion and negative space as not only in the drawing but also in the adding details of the seagull sketch I DCE2C2C7-D477-453E-9C14-E97685DD7B43was doing. The shading helped with depth and bringing out the wings.  Proportion was so helpful in getting body length, head and legs in sync.
    • Sara
      Participant
      Chirps: 6
      I really have trouble with depth.  B2
    • Steve
      Participant
      Chirps: 5
      wolves2
    • Judith
      Participant
      Chirps: 1
      I am learning so much and renewing some of the skills I acquired in art classes decades ago.. Sandhill Crane
    • Esteban
      Participant
      Chirps: 170
      My polished lizard
    • Esteban
      Participant
      Chirps: 170
      20210825_141035-01
    • V L
      Participant
      Chirps: 10
      Gesture Drawing (2)Refined Drawing (2) Putting the techniques I've learned was lots of fun.  The easiest for me to use was proportion and negative space.  The hardest is shading.  I still have touble seeingwhere the shadows are and  I have trouble using the right technique and getting the right value.
    • E
      Participant
      Chirps: 5
      The techniques I found most helpful are proportion, negative space and breaking the subject down into shapes and relationships.  But I find myself using all the different techniques at different times. 15B852D7-77A0-41A1-B291-FCA0133119F8
    • Kathleen
      Participant
      Chirps: 74
      I am concentrating on working quickly, adding detail later during commercials on television. I viewed a Chevy truck commercial a number of times getting a little more detail in the quick sketch each time because it was a very amusing story. IMG_20210810_180403
    • Suzanne
      Participant
      Chirps: 22
      I find the proportion tool useful as well as simply going back several times after stepping away a bit to add more detail. The more values (light, medium, and dark) shades I give the drawing, the more 3D it becomes.IMG_6832
    • Carolyn
      Participant
      Chirps: 17
      img319
    • Deborah
      Participant
      Chirps: 9
      IMG-6939It is tough to be in the field and trying for the full gesture drawing before the subject leaves.  The Cedar Waxwing flew in a blink but in that moment, I could not see the flat shape of the top of its head.  The feathers seemed tucked down as it flew.  Does anyone know why this bird has a red spot on the tertial feathers?  What adaptation could the red color be for and in only one small spot?
    • Dorothy D
      Participant
      Chirps: 21
      I continue to battle proportions in my viewpoints but feel better at observation details. Short strokes help a lot. Always willing to walk away from the drawing and then come back to refine again and again.Scan Jul 26, 2021 at 2.18 PM
    • Dorothy D
      Participant
      Chirps: 21
      Still sometimes dealing with proportion of viewpoint. Sketchy lines approach has helped me over the course rather than just aiming for shapes. Still working on the details always...
    • Jill
      Participant
      Chirps: 7
      Gesture Drawing Exercise:  Not much detail just a basic outline, I didn't really get in any shading and proportions of parts are all wrong. unnamed (3) Refined Drawing:  I was able to add a lot more details to this drawing.  I had to do a lot of fixing of proportions and shading of light and darks.  The proportions still need work I think, there are still more details that I overlooked when I took a step back at my drawing.  It was fun though! unnamed (2)    
    • Martha
      Participant
      Chirps: 4
      I have learned more about balancing proportion. Looking back at my sketches I can see where measuring makes a huge difference. Blank space has made a difference  image
    • Nancy
      Participant
      Chirps: 7
      I am pleased with my progress, knowing that I will never be an artist. All the skills have been useful to me. I taught biology and zoology and always told my students I flunked art. I think noticing the open spaces has been very helpful.
    • Nancy
      Participant
      Chirps: 7
      Took  a quick sketch image and tried to make it better. fill in the details