By drawing and really looking I noticed the way the warbler’s feet wrapped around the twig, and the lovely pale blue green of the lake and on the branch. Lots of detail that I couldn’t figure out how to capture. 

I actually thought it was easier to draw from the photo since the bird wasn't moving.  I do use my iPhone camera a lot and have relied on that for documenting things. I might not have noticed the subtle coloration on the shoulder area if I had seen this bird in the field.  It does make you look a bit more closely at details.

Drawing from the photo was nice - no stress worrying about it flying away. While nothing about this was “easy”, I think that capturing the texture was much harder for me than the overall shape. I don’t think I would have noticed the different types of lichen, or the faint brown on the bird’s head if I wasn’t drawing.

First drawing!

1. Drawing from a photo stopped action of the bird and allowed me to see the detail. I used a round and oval shape to form the bird from one of the journal examples, which helped with the bird shape. Then I revised it.  After seeing some of people’s work I tried using watercolor over top of the drawing but I needed to use a finer brush - so lesson learned there. 2. Probably the detail of the branches - lichen and the leaves which were somewhat obscured, changing their shape. For nature journaling it would be important to capture these details - showing the type of tree the bird was perched on.

• I liked doing the drawing and was impressed with the unique talents that shone through each of my colleagues drawing. I already learned something from each one. Everything was challenging since this is new for me, but putting down that first line was the biggest challenge, and the second biggest was knowing when to stop.

Yes, being asked to draw it made many things easier to notice and I think this is one of the strengths off sketching. 

I had a hard time getting the proportions right and got frustrated at one point, but since I was drawing from a photo, I took my time and got it to a point that I was ok with. Drawing it, I picked up on some details like the kind of sunflower seed shape of their beak and all the little color variations.  I can definitely see why drawing is important for good observations. I'm excited to keep practicing, and I'm enjoying looking at everyone else's drawings too.

I enjoyed drawing this bird. I love yellow warblers!  I struggle with head shapes and eyes of birds. I would not have noticed the ring of yellow feathers around the eye, it is exquisite!  (Although I did not capture it).  I could have gotten better detail with colored pencil but I want to learn watercolor.   Using binoculars and magnifying glasses are important to seeing detail, such as the eye ring in the field.

It was challenging to get the proportions correct and I struggled with drawing the feet on the branch and getting the beak right. Looking at a photo allowed me to concentrate on details that might have passed me by if this were a live subject.

Drawing a still image is easier  than from life,  but you learn more about the subject by seeing how it characteristically moves. Getting proportions accurately is easier when there is more time. You also can observe details instead of "making up" what you think you see.

At least a photo stays still.  I certainly couldn't identify this bird or the leaves of the branch from my drawing.  The feet weren't too bad for a first stab, maybe that was because they were mostly behind the branch!  Seeing a limited view makes it easier to get the portions.  And having everything in close up makes it easier to do perspective.

1.I enjoyed drawing the warbler from the photo.  what was easy- getting general head/body/tail shape and rough in of color markings.  more challenging was getting the beak shape. and also the lichens and moss? on the branch 2. drawing the scene rather than photoing it made me slow down and really look at the subtleties of the shading on the warbler's head, shape of its beak and also the lichens and moss on the branch.

I immediately felt happy when saw this cheerful yellow bird! I (think I) can see from the photo that the bird's body is facing away, but the head is turned back at the camera. I found it challenging to get the body perspective right, and to get the eye looking at the viewer. I can see that the edges of the feathers show up as the contours of the body, but it's challenging to make marks that imitate the feather shapes. It's fun how the acts of drawing and seeing interact, like two people dancing. In my case, they seem to take turns leading. After starting to draw the wings, I remembered from another drawing course that the wing feathers are very orderly, with two or three different kinds of feathers. Then I saw the light colored outlines at the end of the flight feathers. I could go back and erase some of the dark pencil there. Also I might erase inside the eye to bring back the white highlight that makes the eye look shiny. I am hopeful that doing drawings from photos helps the hand to get used to the basic shapes of birds, so that when I am watching a live bird, I can see and sketch within the few seconds that are available.

I attempted a second drawing of the bird and used colored pencils for the colors. I realized I don't know how to use paint or pencils to get the right effect. I'm looking forward to those lessons.  I am a good birder and know many birds by sight and sound. This course will heighten my powers of observation! I am overwhelmed by the huge number of emails responses to the topic and realize how very good many people are in sketching. Journal writing is much easier for me than drawing/sketching. Thank you everyone for your comments!

Enjoyed seeing others' contributions...we all see and render differently and then of course there's the relationship with the pencil (forgiving, correctable) & then pen (INK! oh my!).  Adding color is fun, scary too, and often I go too far and things get muddy...find it's helpful to take a pic of the drawing before applying color, then I have that for my records and also could print out and try another go at colorization, including using different mediums... oh...THOSE questions:  I noticed the subtlety of the yellow coloring, the black feather tips and I really liked drawing the branch too.

I did notice a lot more of the bird in trying to draw it but my drawing really looks very little like the bird.  I was trying to draw slowly but after realizing that it really didn't make it any better, I just started to go quicker.  Took maybe 5 minutes.  In the field, I won't even have 5 minutes.  I have some color pencils so I did color it a little but otherwise I would not know the bird if I didn't label it.  I knew it immediately when I saw the photo though.