Jennifer

What are chirps???

Besides working hard to find the critical colors for the scapulars and such, I found it very difficult to figure out how to handle the paint. Consistency and amount of pigment.... it was particularly difficult to hard to handle the water pens and applying the thin highlight lines. My cardinal got fatter and fatter as my shaky hand had a challenge on the breast.

Drawing from a photo, especially one in front of us felt awkward. Sure it gives you certain information that might be important for basic identification but it gives you one dimension. Drawing anything from nature is interactive. You can move around to adjust your viewpoint. I had a hard time understanding the bird's wing structure. It makes me want to study basic bird anatomy. In your sketchbook samples I loved the way the woman drawing the hummingbird looked at the bird many times and did a multitude of drawings to understand what was going on! I loved her inquisitive work. Its not "finished" per se but very self educating and personal.