20190728 Drawing Birds Tip No1

20190728 Wader head topography.

Drawing Birds Tip No1:

Learning bird topography off by heart is one of the most useful steps to take towards the sketching and note taking for birds in the field.

Feathers grow in tracts or zones around a birds body and artistically help to give it shape and form. Refer to the introduction in any worthy field guide for examples of topography.

Initially looking at the head concentrate on the feather zones within it but not on individual feathers or fine detail. Draw out each zone as isolated irregular trapezoids, filling in feather patterns and colour notes for each one. This is ideal for use in field ID descriptions. See A.

Constructing the head from these zones will help give the bird a solid and 3 dimensional look, the object of any observational drawing on a 2 dimensional surface... Noting combinations of colour and feather patterns within each feather zone of interest can then become more refined. See B.