I tried to upload some pictures but I failed. It's ok. I am going to type here. So I tried to draw the bird with my pen first so that it has a configuration of the outline of the bird. However, the proportion is hard to control. I tried a couple of times but it was just not accurate enough. So the last time I just gave up and used color pens directly. A very colorful bird has emerged. I just felt that things don't need to be perfect. It's almost done. It's ok.

This is my yellow warbler. It didn’t take much time, I think I’m gonna draw it again taking more time and using color. But drawing from a photo is not like drawing in the field. I am afraid it will be quite difficult to make a sketch on site, with the bird moving...

T

It was easier to recognize detail when drawing from the photo. I didn’t draw to scale and looked up some detail about the bird. This was fun and I hope to learn to sketch faster so that I can draw and paint from experience in my back yard, my flowers, plants and bird feeders. Also, would like to slow down on walks and drives in the country to record the details. I write in a journal, and love to paint watercolor from photos, but have never drawn or painted from real life experience.

Overall I would do things a lot different already.  ;)   Especially with more guidance. I was nervous about most of it. Then I realized I needed to find a balance between trying to make everything perfect and just capturing what’s important. Overdoing it led to some bad mistakes. I think that the photo is easier than movement , you can definitely capture more details, unless your sketching a tree or plant. With animals a still photo will be better for me as of yet. The challenge for me was the bird. I kept wanting to get the right proportions. Then painting was hard because I’m not familiar enough with it, I can see myself enjoying it once I can allow myself to let go and also learn some helpful techniques. The branch was much easier. Now I just need to work on the details, sketching and painting.  I’m excited to learn about the different plants and animals that will soon be filling my journal, and learning more techniques that will help me draw and paint better.  I love seeing everyone’s art as well. Some are absolutely amazing!!!

Drawing from a photo is not as challenging as drawing something in motion. I think that I captured the overall essence of the photo, but I had a difficult time with the shape of the bird and getting it right.

I enjoyed what became my singular focus on drawing this bird & kept returning to the page to “fix” this or that until it was almost edited out of existence. Tried the color pencils & my poor bird wanted to fly away from them so stopped before I ruined it and lose the sense of pleasure at working on it at all. Working from a photo made it easier because the visual angle stayed the same. I could back again and again to change a line or correct a bit of shading to satisfy my eye. Almost got myself in trouble by enlarging it and seeing the delicate feathering but after trying to capture that, decided to stick with one focus because that would likely be closer to the actual field experience. I agree with another nature journalist here that I get too hung up on my version of “perfection” and need to let that go!

I found this exercise challenging, but overall enjoyable. I first drew the branches without leaves to help establish scale for the bird, but then after I had the outline of the warbler I got distracted trying to portray precise leaf arrangements instead of focusing on the bird itself. The bird was hard, especially in black and white. I really was struck by the subtlety of color, and how much variation there was. The eye (or getting the expression of the eye) and the feet were what I struggled most with.

It was fun! I often use the photos to draw. So this exercise was very familiar to me. Photo provides to see small details, though my photos aren't good as sample photo. I think I need bigger journalbook or sketchbook!

I enjoyed the exercise but I find when using a photo I get hung up on perfection ! I am hoping this course will help me loosen up more . You can be that exact when you have a moving object and I need to work on that . I always get frustrated when my subject moves so I am looking for tips to help me relax with that and just get on with it ! 

I noticed my mind jumped to what I assumed I saw, even as I was trying to pay close attention to what I did see. This little guy is chubbier and has more attitude than I caught--and what powerful looking feet!

I was nervous to start, didn't know where to start. Had a difficult time with the scale. I was drawing what I was thinking instead of what I was seeing. The longer I took, the more I saw, and tried to accurately change my sketch to match the photo. I would never have noticed the layers of feathers, the detail of the branches, the lichen growing on the branches. At first it looked like a smooth bird with a few markings, upon closer inspection I was able to pick out individual feathers and stripes, various colors. It changed from a yellow bird to a yellow, black, and brown bird. A bird with stripes, and layers upon layers of feathers. I learned I need a very large ERASER!

I started my drawing in pencil, then added splashes of color then outlines things in black. I noticed as I was doing this that I was “distracted” by nagging thoughts about shape and proportion, and I had to dismiss those in order to proceed with the image. As I was working, I was also distracted from the bird by the realization that there were LICHEN on the branch the bird was sitting on.  I’m really into lichen right now, so that detail pulled my focus for a while. I think the biggest thing I noticed as I was working was how the bird’s feet were wrapped around the branch.  I focused on its toes for a bit, and how the toenails were sooooo long.When I’d finished with the drawing, I added a date and a few notes. Q: What advantages do drawings have over photos? Drawing forced me to break the image down into components.  I used the technique of creating the bird out of geometric shapes, and that really helped. I don’t think I got the proportions right, but I won’t beat myself up over that. The “advantage” to drawing is that it made me STOP and really LOOK at the bird: how its body was put together; what its eye color was; what the beak color and shape were; how its feet were holding the branch.  I also noticed more about the branch itself; the lichen on in; the gnarly wood; the leaf with the circle cut out of it (probably by a leaf-cutter bee)… I was more “present” with the bird and its surroundings. If the nature journal is supposed to act, in part, as an assist to scientific understanding and knowledge of wildlife and their habitat, then noticing and capturing the “small stuff” (like the lichen) would be important. It makes me wonder what sort of habitat the Yellow Warblers prefer to live in.  Will Climate Change affect them?  Do they interact at all with the lichen (for nesting, etc.)?  It makes me want to learn a lot more. Q: What advantages do photos have over drawings? The most obvious advantage to me is that a photo freeze-frames a particular moment in time, and you can take that image home with you and draw from it (rather than sitting out in the field) Photos also have the advantage of keeping your subject absolutely still. Birds flit all over the place; trying to do a drawing of a moving subject would make me, as a beginner at nature journaling, absolutely crazy. Another advantage: The light stays the same.  When you’re in the field, even a few minutes can completely change the way the light on your subject looks and acts.

I always need photos as a source for proportion and detail so I’m looking forward to getting away from this dependency. However, details in the bark, moss, feathers might have been missed if drawing quick sketches outdoors. 

1. I felt immediately absorbed and realized I could spend 1 min, 5 mins, 50 mins or hours drawing this.  I also yearned to use color. I was very tempted to draw the foliage, not the bird.  The bird at first seemed too amorphous, the foliage offering more variety, but that quickly changed.  I also struggle with proportion and shading. 2. The angle of the beak and the way the back of the beak formed an arrow was something I saw only when trying to recreate it.  I can already feel how this kind of drawing transforms and deepens my attention and places me squarely in the moment I'm in.

Guess it's obvious that my interest is in the bird!

Loved viewing all of the submissions!  I wish I had posted my drawing of the Yellow Warbler, which I think was better than it turned out after painting it.  I'd like to have some input about how to minimally paint in a journal.

As I was painting the Yellow Warbler from the course photo, the trees/branches/leaves were easier for me, as is typical, while the bird was a challenge.  Although I've painted for years, I'm mostly self-taught, and have never taken a drawing course.  Without a photo, I might not have noticed the little clump of nesting material or fungus in the twig notch under the bird's perch.  I like including such little details, so I prefer having photos to help me along.  In my journal, I wrote that the day is sunny, about 10ºF, breezy, and the snow is diamond-studded.  It's 02/22/2020 at 10:30AM.  As I sit at the dining table, I see larger birds at the feeders outside, but smaller birds didn't emerge until at least an hour later.