For a very long time, I struggled to get accurate proportions in my drawings of birds. Despite my efforts to improve as a bird artist, I seemed to get nowhere! Then I stumbled on The Artist’s Compete Guide to Figure Drawing by Anthony Rider. While not directly related to drawing birds, I found Rider’s approach … Read More
Inktober is about to begin! Here’s a sneak peak of what I’ve been working on. When the official Inktober 2020 prompts came out, as a bird artist I didn’t feel especially inspired. While I can see how some of the suggestions could be stretched to include birds, most of them seemed a bit too far … Read More
For almost every family of bird, there is a distinctive bill shape. Bills vary in size, color, and function. In this post, I introduce some of the features of the bill that are most important in drawing or painting birds. The Mandibles A bird’s bill are composed of an upper mandible (also called the maxilla) … Read More
It probably comes as no surprise that as a bird artist, I draw birds every single day. I carry my drawing kit with me everywhere so I have my favorite art supplies with me at all times. Here are the items that I just can’t live without. Sketchbook My current sketchbook is a Pentalic 8” … Read More
As a bird artist, I am constantly looking at bird photos and when I find a source for excellent images, I go nuts! While I knew about Unsplash, I had no idea that there were hundreds of amazing bird photos there! Here are ten of my favorites. Keel-billed Toucan Photographer: Zdeněk Macháček What I love … Read More
While my home state of Oregon’s forests burn, and I mourn the loss of lives and homes and forests and what seems like the last shred of normalcy in this incredibly eff’d up year, I can’t help but think about Black-backed Woodpeckers. Black-backed Woodpeckers arrive in burned forests before the fires are even out. Some … Read More