Yesterday while I was birding, I saw and heard a yellow warbler way up in a tree.  Although I had a good look at the warbler up in the tree, seeing a photo of it and then drawing it while paying attention to the shape of the bird, as well as the coloring detail, will help me to remember those characteristics of the bird, making for easier bird identification in the future.

The photo had more detail but doing my drawing made me focus more on the parts of the bird. I learned more about the anatomy of a bird leg and how the claws worked. I also saw way more color when I needed to paint it.

The photo had more detail but doing my drawing made me focus more on the parts of the bird. I learned more about the anatomy of a bird leg and how the claws worked. I also saw way more color when I needed to paint it.

Drawings have an advantage over photos because the camera can only capture when the device's lens is told to get, which can be blurry or miss part of the whole picture, while when drawing you can take longer to capture as much detail as possible, go back and correct mistakes and improve upon it. Photos have an advantage over photos of being able to capture a moment for later reference and do so much quicker then drawing that moment, which you might miss some action with your head down at a sketchpad instead of up with your eye looking through a lens. 1- It was ok drawing from the photo. The general shape and appearance of the bird was fine, but trying to get feathers to look lifelike and faces and heads the right proportions are always difficult for me. 2- I don't think there was anything in the photo that I didn't notice if I wasn't going to draw it and at this time I don't know if that would make a difference when nature journaling.

That was fun! I look forward to seeing how it'll change as I work through the course. Basically, I was just drawing what I see for this.

I found the general shapes to be easy to get down but when it came to filling in the details it got a bit muddled with only the pencil at this stage of my drawing skills. Hoping to get better with coloring in features when having something to color with isn't an option. I'm a big fan of black line art so hoping to incorporate that a lot into my journaling. I did notice some growth on the branch in the form of lichen/moss/mold, thanks to a book I just finished reading, that I might not have noticed otherwise. Here's my Yellow Warbler to kick off my journaling experience beyond just taking notes on the bird species I see.

Love the fact that the bird stays still - you can take your time and try to capture how it really looks. It was fairly easy to get the basic body shape, but capturing the angles of the legs was hard. It's also difficult to "suggest" the feathers without drawing too much detail and muddying the picture. I noticed the complexity of the little guy's feet and how they grasped the branch. Not sure I'd notice the feet when out in the wild, but overall drawing draws you into what you're seeing so much more than just looking or trying to photograph. (pun not intended.... ;)

Drawing from the photo was way more convenient than doing it out in the field would be (I've never tried that so this is only a guess).  Photos let you see details you'd miss otherwise and offer clues in how to identify the birds so drawing may improve my birding.  Win, win - or that's the hope.  I could easily tell the photo was a picture of a yellow warbler, but I can't say the same for my drawing.  :-/

I liked drawing from the photo. I could take as long as I liked. The head was the easiest part for me, but I had some trouble getting the tail and the feathers that flood out to look right. If I hadn't had to draw the bird, I probably wouldn't have noticed all of the intricate lines, and how much black there is in the picture. Overall, I enjoyed it.

I am not very familiar with water colors and I feel like I have a lot to learn about how to use them. I didn't like the colors that much that I used but I don't know how to mix them. You definitely note a lot more detail when you draw from a photo. When you are drawing from nature you miss a lot of detail unless the object you are drawing stays still for a long time which is unusual.

First drawing of a bird.   A little rough, found the proportions hard to recreate.   However not a stick person (:

I found it started looking like a zombie or otherwise frightening bird pretty quickly. It's the eyes. I also got lazy about the plumage and wings, and it probably would have been better to just suggest more. My son, who is six, said "head is same, wings kinda same... body is not same."

I felt apprehensive at first but accepted the challenge of drawing the bird. Getting it to look three dimensional or pop out of the page was difficult. Mine looks flat and you can't tell the curvature of the bird. I also found it difficult to draw the branches to look like they were proportional and adding depth to them was hard too. What I noticed were the beautiful diversity of life on the branch! The lichen and the bluish colors, orange on the branches and different textures all along the branch. I also noticed the black lines on the feathers more detailed as well.

My initial drawing was good, and then I put it down for a day or two, and came back to it later to color it in. I had initially meant to do it with watercolors, but I don't have good paper for that at the moment, so I used a regular sketch book and then I decided to color it with colored pencils. So then, rather than simply coloring in my drawing of the bird, I had to locate all of my colored pencils and make sure all the sets were complete and arrange them correctly by color and number and then sharpen all the ones that weren't sharp... Five hours later... I clearly have a procrastination issue. During that process I decided to use watercolor pencils for a compromise. I think it came out ok, but I will use better paper next time. I take too long to do a drawing to be able to draw something like a bird before it flies away...I think I may consider taking photos of things like birds and other things that might run off while I'm outside wandering around and making drawings of them later, and draw things like plants and rocks that stay put in person.

I wanted to capture the character. Most difficult - to capture the bird's proportions.

For some reason my note didn't accompany my lousy picture. The exercise helped me get past the tyranny of the blank page. Sketching teaches me how to see and commit details to memory. I have zero experience (well, not since kindergarten). Sometimes I kept my eye on the Yellow Warbler while moving my pencil, as if the hand was powered by the eye. Other times I shifted my gaze up to the photo and down to the journal. Is there a right or wrong way?

I had a lot of fun drawing this picture! I hadn't done watercolors for a long time and I never thought I was very good in it to begin with. But all the videos from the previous step of the course gave me motivation to try anyway. Drawing the tree branch was surprizingly easy, I had a lot of fun trying to capture the texture. The bird was harder, I still don't have a full grasp of bird anathomy :) If I wasn't asked to draw the picture, I don't think I would have noticed all the colors of the tree branch. I was surprised that I defaulted to "trees are brown" and didn't even think about it. Noticing the real colors behind things will be really useful from now on!

Getting the shape down at first was challenging, but filling in the details came easier.I noticed way more about the bird now that I had to draw it. I've identified this bird multiple times in real life, but I don't think I could have fully described the bird's appearance until now, after I have drawn it. I hope this is one of the many benefits of nature journaling.

Photos are much faster. Drawings let you see way more detail. I don't think I would have noticed the dark edges on the wing feathers if I didn't draw it. I was looking for details to put in the drawing. Also, once I started, the drawing drew me in. I found getting the proportions within the picture somewhat challenging.

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It's a challenge for me to take the time to observe, sketch, come back and observe again. By drawing, I took more time to see the picture, beyond the beautiful colors. Still waiting for my own watercolors/sketch pad to be delivered, so just pencil for now.

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