I like drawing from a photo because it stays still, but at the same time it lacks the life of a drawing out in nature. Here I can pay attention to details. I liked sketching the beak and feet, something I may not have been able to observe carefully when drawing outside.  I wondered about their shape and functions. I found the lychens to be challenging, especially the large one, because it doesn't have the same definitive shape and shading.

Drawing from a photo is easier than in nature because I have time to compare spaces and angles.  I have a lot of trouble with beaks because I haven't practiced enough. I always see things when drawing that I never saw before.  Nature journaling makes me much more aware of my surroundings, whether it be a bird or a bee, a person or a tree.

With a still photo, it is easy to focus on the details and perhaps spend more time than one should on a quick sketch.  The biggest difficulty I had was in proportions.  I could not quite get the sizing right from bird to branch to background. I was not able to show well in my sketch that the warbler's head was turned to the viewer.  I do feel like my sketch shows some of the vivacity of the bird and I like that.  Drawing is another way of remembering so I hope that in doing so, it will cement some of the field marks for these species in my mind.  

I prefer drawing from a photo because you have time to study the details. You miss the movement and behaviors, but you can see the light and feather patterns better. It was difficult to represent the shiny bill and the multitude of colors with pencil, but at the same time forced me to pay attention to overall light and contrast of the whole composition. If I drew this again, I'd pay closer attention to the proportions of the breast, head, and eye. They have a flattish crown and a bold brow, which I didn't capture as well as I'd have liked. The eye is too far back from the bill giving him a bit of a woodcock look! Looking forward to learning more techniques and seeing the redo at the end of the course.  

I enjoyed trying to draw the yellow warbler from the photo and did not feel too embarrassed That my drawing was such a poor image. Everything was a challenge, especially proportions. I didn’t know if I should draw while looking at the image or if I should look at the page while I drew and keep looking back at the photo, alternating. I would not have noticed the details of the foliage or the shading on the wings. Details like these hone my sense of sight and memory for journaling.

As a photo, I would notice the details only in broad strokes...yellow bird, green leaves, stick. Drawing it caused me to take note of many details about the bird, the shape of and the light on the leaves, shape of the branch, the lichen and the moss on the stick...even though not detailed in my drawing.

Oh boy. For me this was challenging even capturing the larger gestures and my poor warbler looks like a zombie. I haven't worked with watercolors much at all so I opted out. But I can see that spending a little more time with the context will help. It's very "sketchy" and like one of the other students I always start lightly in pencil but often fail to go in and darken where it needs darkening. I also need to spend more time when I can. I get frustrated when my proportions and relationships seem off - sometimes its a matter of playing with that lineweight a bit. I was fascinated by how the warbler's feet gripped the branch and could study the foot - thank goodness it was a photo!

Drawing was, interestingly, the easy part. I just completed a beginning drawing two-day class at my local arts non-profit's studio,  so I rendered it first in graphite. However, using watercolors never, it was another interesting process capturing the details of what I had drawn from the photo. This presketch/watercolor is not finished, obviously, but now I definitely know exactly what I don't know. It was all sort of meditative and  I am very much looking forward to the rest of this course during which I anticipate learning techniques that advance me from an aspiring Audubon or RTPeterson wannabe to a status closer to apprentice.

For me, the easiest part was to respect the proportions, I thought it would have been more difficult. The biggest challenge was the wing with all the thin lines. To represent the different textures in the feathers is not easy. I noticed so many details during the process! For exemple how the wing is built in layers and the very subtle circle around the eye. After completing my first drawing, which took me long, I tried to do it a second time now sketching it in two minutes or so.

Hello Liz, here is my drawing. I really liked the picture of this cute bird and enjoyed drawing it. I don't know how to render the shades and the form of the feathers, and I would like to learn how to go from a simple sketch to an actual drawing. Thank you for your nice videos. 

Off and running!  So glad to finally be putting pencil to paper and giving this a try.  I liked sketching with a still photo so I could take my time and really focus on trying to get the proportions right - still have some work to do on that, but not horrified by my first effort.  The heavy paper and graphite pencil were so easy to work with.  I think I'm going to like this!

Drawing from the photo gave me time to notice details and attempt to get them in my drawing.  I do wonder about working with live subjects!  Plants will stay put, mostly, but light will change.  Critters, if I ask kindly, will they stay put just a little longer?  Guess not...  It seems that for now, if I want to really capture details, I may need to work from photos.  Getting the drawing down with pencil was easier than I thought it would be.  Paying attention to the detail in the bird was easy.  I loved the close observation work.  I think I wouldn't have noticed the close details in the plant if I were focusing on the bird while working outside.  And if working outside, I don't think I would have as much detail in the bird.  I'd have been making text notes to come back to fill in details in the drawing later. Thank you for sharing your photos and comments.  We do learn more when we share our experiences.

I'll try to insert the image later - I haven't been able to download the image from my phone. I liked drawing from a photo - it didn't move, unlike birds.  You could look back at the image and see something new almost every time I looked.  Getting the proportions right was really tough for me and I tend to draw lightly with a pencil first and (after lots of fiddling around) got to a place that seemed pretty good.  I didn't think anything came easily.  I added the branches and leaves as an afterthought - which helped. I didn't notice that the bird had cocked its head until I read someone else had discovered it - that was brilliant.  I probably wouldn't have noticed the amount of non-yellow in the Yellow Warbler if I hadn't been trying to draw it.  The difference that journaling will probably make is I will learn how to identify which details are important.  I wonder if it is possible to find important details to include and still draw more freely.  I already learned that I enjoy playing with color and tend to spend a lot of time looking at detail.

I definitely struggled with drawing this photo. I am not great at drawing period, and with my kids around I really struggled to pit in the time I wanted to. However, my drawing was better than I it would be, so I am proud of myself in that sense. I think something I really noticed was the wing patterns, or any patterns in general are a huge benefit when you are drawing.

I loved trying to draw the warbler. I like using a photo as a reference. But I am most used to color pencils and was trying to use watercolor pencils for this one, since I thought maybe that's what would be used in the field. I noticed that the bird wasn't really looking sideways, he is somewhat looking toward us and I couldn't capture that. I noticed the black and yellow alternations in his wing feathers and that the steaks on his chest have some redness to them and are uneven..

I have a bit of a mental block about sketching, so this course will help me with that.  I'm think I'm most interested in sketching plants, so it's great that the first project was NOT plants, but something that is likely harder, i.e. this bird.  I do love bird watching!  This was fun.

First I tried watercolor but found it difficult to get fine detail. So I then drew with graphite. It will be interesting to compare before course/ after course drawings!

Drawing from a photo makes it easy to check proportions, but I still didn't get her all on the page. Missed off half her tail. Noticed that feathers tend to follow the shape of the body and that there are fare more tones in the bill than I thought. Starting doors make you look, especially when the drawing doesn't look right, and you try to figure out why.