I enjoyed sketching this bird! It was a little challenging drawing the head! But I am surprised it turned out to my liking. I am a real beginner but looking forward to what I will learn in this course.😊

The nice thing about sketching from a photo is that you have all the time you need. Creating texture in the branches was more difficult for me. Nothing about drawing is easy for me. I am a newbie at this, although I've attempted it from time to time over the years. As far as noticing details, being a lifelong birder has trained me to notice details. Making it happen on the page is another story altogether.

I am trying to add my photo and will come back to this portion as soon as I get the image to load! I liked sketching from a photo as it gives me plenty of time to get the proportions right. I am a slow sketcher and that is my biggest challenge... I can achieve the results I am aiming for when I take it slow but am hoping to become faster and more proficient. Also, challenging for me are some watercolor techniques and I hope with more practice (I have been sketching and watercoloring since last June) I will get better at gauging the right amount of water to achieve certain looks. I am enjoying the process enormously and look forward to more exploration.

I was reminded of an additional difference between photos vs. drawings today. Of course, it is more easy to create an exact replica of a subject with a camera than a sketch pad, but this is not always the best way to capture an experience. For example, when photographing the wildflowers in my yard today, I captured the flowers, but not the experience.  While my mind focuses on the rich colors and wide variety of flowers, the camera can also capture an imbalanced background or poor lighting, for example.  When I improve my sketching skills, I hope I will more easily capture the essence of my experiences.

Couldn’t upload this with my post below - not sure why?

I enjoyed drawing from the Warbler photo, though it was challenging. It’s so much easier to draw from a photo than drawing birds from real life, though, because the bird doesn’t move! I photograph birds all the time, but rarely keep up with my nature journaling, because it’s so much easier and quicker to use my camera. When drawing from a photo like this, I can spend a lot of time looking back and forth, checking details and proportions, erasing, and editing over and over, noticing so much more. I’d really like to become more intentional and committed to journaling in the field. I spend a lot of time outdoors in natural areas, mostly near marshes, ponds, and wetlands of all kinds, and worry that I’ll miss a good photo opportunity if I get “sidetracked” with my nature journal! But when I do take the time - and my sketchbook - I learn so much and SEE so much. I’m hoping this course will help me be more consistent about journaling.

I am trying to add my photo and will come back to this portion as soon as I get the image to load! I liked sketching from a photo as it gives me plenty of time to get the proportions right. I am a slow sketcher and that is my biggest challenge... I can mostly achieve the results I am aiming for when I take it slow but am hoping to become faster and more proficient. Also, challenging for me are some watercolor techniques and I hope with more practice (I have been sketching and watercoloring since last June) I will get better at gauging the right amount of water to achieve certain looks. I am enjoying the process enormously and look forward to more exploration.

First drawing of the class! I put most of my effort into the warbler and got lazy with its perch. I always tend to focus more on the bird than any other part of the scene. That's one of the things I want to move away from in my nature journaling. Even though I am curious about plants, other animals, and phenology I've never tried to document them with the same intention I put towards documenting birds. I found the foliage and details on the bark (the lichen, shading, and rough texture) to be the most difficult to draw. Those shapes and textures are so different from bird shapes and feather textures, so I never know how to really capture them. I liked drawing from a photo first to have time to take in all the details, but I want to get better at drawing quick sketches from short encounters that are more likely to happen in the field.

I loved how it was a simple picture but still very engaging. The head and the beak were the most difficult. Drawing the bird Meade me see the details of its wings and see how dark it’s eyes were. Yes it makes a big dierencrematorium in nature journaling, its important to see the details.

The advantage of photography is, with a good photo, you can see a great deal of detail of the item you focused on. This can be reviewed later. In the meantime, you’re focusing on light, settings, background blurr, composition, etc. You are in the moment with your piece of technology. Hopefully, you’ll catch the moment and then remember to look at the product someday and be thrilled. You can also catch a quick happenstance that, even if blurry, can provide essential information. The advantage of drawing is that you can focus on what is most important, though you won’t have the detail one can catch in a photograph. You can add portions of the background important to you, or write it beside the drawing, to include vital environmental factors, behaviour, sounds. Lighting is less important. You are engaged with your subject, rather than technology. It was helpful to work from the photo because it gave me time to get shape and catch important details. My issue came when I had “finished”; then I magnified the photo. “Oh, look how soft it is. Look at those little feather details.” Then I tried to adjust the drawing to include them, and I lost out. I had already included the vital bits and they got lost in the result. I would have been better to do a focus circle for some, and write text for others. If I hadn’t drawn the warbler, I wouldn’t have noticed the fine detail of the feathers, bill, the plumpness of the bird or how it grips the branch. I may not have noticed the blackened back, leg colour or the soft eye ring.

It definitely helps having a still photo to reference to, with the different feather patterns. When nature journaling it will be helpful knowing the species you are journaling to grasp a better visual memory of your subject.   Helpful tip: when you have a colored pencil that keeps breaking, place in the microwave for no more than 5 seconds to soften up the wax. :p

I am not an experienced artist...I usually take photos.  I find getting perspective and proportion especially difficult, and in particular with wildlife. I think if I can master this skill, drawing from a photo will allow more character to shine through, both for the subject and me ;-)

I really enjoyed drawing and painting the Warbler from the photo!  The beak and eye were difficult for me, though, and I had to erase and re-sketch that area quite a few times.  Drawing the bird helped me notice the different colors of the feathers.  I decided not to get too detailed with the background.

Observations: This took a lot longer than I expected! I did this over three sessions, stopping when I got "stuck," and picking it up again later. Leaves = hard! For me, the shape of the bird was more difficult than the shading. I probably would not have noticed the interesting different types of lichen on the branch. I didn't spend a lot of time drawing them, but the act of sketching definitely made me more aware of them. I find myself wanting to draw all the wildflowers in my yard. I look forward to being able to add color. I love color!! At some point you have to call it done, and move to the next lesson. I will be learning more than sketching in this course. ;-)  I was not far in before I realized I had to make a choice between enjoyment and discouragement. I chose enjoyment. I hope I can continue to do so! (I'm had trouble uploading when using Firefox, even though my photo was a jpg and is only 136kb.  I would say 100% uploaded, but then gave the error message. It worked on Chrome.)

How will I ever draw from real life? That's what I'm currently wondering. I enjoyed getting to see the details of the warbler's feet. I admired the still image because of the details. Working with watercolors and drawing are new for me, so I can't wait to see how I progress as time goes on.

It's a relief to concentrate on one thing for a moment! The photo helps render line in 2D, and so makes translation to a drawing a bit easier. I wouldn't have noticed the differing textures of feathers without drawing them--and they were a challenge to do. I struggle a bit with moving from color to black and white (I only used pencil) in terms of showing hue as value. My bird looks a little too round and happy; I don't think I got the sense of energy of the photograph.

I am pretty comfortable drawing/painting from photos.   Proportion is the hardest for me.  I try measuring the image to find a mid point for both hieght and width to try to get my proportions right.   It would be much harder to do with a live creature that may fly away.

I was excited to draw the bird.  It was hard to get the shape of his head right and the angle of his eye.  I wouldn't have noticed all the lichen and mosses on the tree branch if I hadn't been asked to draw this, because the bird is so vibrant, so I can see this is a definite advantage to nature journaling.

I felt nervous about drawing from the photo because the photo is so exact and I have never drawn a bird before. I have a little trouble with figuring out how to layer watercolor, so hoping this course will help me with that. The photo helped me notice where the secondary and primary feathers end, and the shading of the yellow that isn't just overall one color as you might see with a glance.

Difficult capturing the details and depth.  I noticed more Variance of color studying the bird. 

Getting the shape right was challenging. (I’m used to doodling where shapes appear and then are Developed). Watercolors got muddled I lost the beautiful yellow. Didn’t figure ou how to paint background.  Yesterday never got foto to show up, get inserted. Will try again today