This was a fun exercise.....and I took my time to try to capture proportion and some detail.  It will be fun to compare at the end of the course.  The photo was beautiful to work from, plus you have the luxury of time.  Drawing live in nature will definitely be more of a challenge (:

It is difficult to decide when to stop!  Should I keep adding details or call it quits?  It begins to look overworked, the longer I keep painting.  I think/hope painting directly from nature will allow me to capture more of the personality, or movement will make it more interesting.  Comparing my work to the photograph is defeating.  This first attempt did not achieve results I had hoped for.  My warbler does not look alive.

This turned out much better that I expected! The hardest part was getting started, but once I did it was sketch-erase-sketch-erase-sketch and I enjoyed it. Knowing when to stop is also hard, but since I was working on it while my baby slept, he helped me break away when he woke up. ;) Working from such a high quality photo was good for studying proportions and detail. I will probably download some more pictures like this from the Mckauly library so practice on days when we can get outside!

I was surprised and pleased at the end, though I think I went through more eraser than pencil during the process. There's lots more observation when you draw. I think of photographs as a memento -- something captured rather than reproduced.

I felt anxious about starting to draw until I listened to the lesson again and understood that this was like a baseline and that everything after it would stand a chance of being better! The overall proportions and the bill were most challenging.

When I began to draw the warbler, I realized how difficult it was.  I thought it would be easy. I didn’t know where to start.  Should I start drawing the bird first or branches first?  As I began to draw, I started to notice the brownish fine lines on the breast,  black on the edge of wings and the posture.  As I nature journal, I believe details will make a difference.

The shape of the bird was hard. I wasn't sure what to draw first, the bird or the branches. And if the bird, what part of the bird? For me, I really started to notice details on the wing. The folded primaries and secondaries I may not have noticed unless I was asked to draw it. Unfortunately, birding in the field is hard because the birds are fast and rarely sit still. With drawing I think we can pay more attention, check other sources, and study the birds rather than just see enough field marks or hear the song to get an ID.

I loved the challenge of looking carefully, of trying to capture the “essence” of a Yellow Warbler and what makes it different from other birds. I had trouble with the beak - I think I have one bird shape for every bird I have ever drawn! This time I tried to think about what warblers eat so erase the seed beak. Drawing made me think about the many parts, feathers, legs, feet, beak, streaks on breast, etc. and how they go together to make a warbler.

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Okay...the drawing of the bird made me pay very close attention to very detail of the bird and the branch and leaves.  I was really paying attention to detail.  It was really fun!

Getting shape, color and correct length and size ratios was difficult. What worked was that as I drew I noticed more and more about the anatomy of the bird. The longer I drew the more questions about what I was seeing emerged. This process really allowed me to "see" better and required more engagement in observing and thinking (clearly better for a nature journal).

 1. I feel much more comfortable drawing from a photo because my subject won’t move & I don’t feel like I have to rush. The drawing layout (composition) is set, I have a reference to look back at, which comes easy. My challenging part is size-perspective & drawing the fine details of feathers and textures, to give a 3-D look instead of the flat 2-D drawing. 2. Maybe the moss & lichen on the branches.

It took a lot of erasing and about 1 1/2 hrs, but I enjoyed the process.  I’m just now posting this!  Some of you folks are already amazing!

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.