#038 In Your Backyard

Today we explore birds you see in your own backyard. You will see the teacher's example and select a similar subject from your backyard, from a book, or internet sample. You can use the photo provided. Look at your reference as you draw or paint your picture. Are you surprised that you are not asked to copy the teacher’s example? You will select your own subject for two reasons. First, you will be most interested in a subject that you like, have interest in, or find within your own environment. Secondly, when we look at real objects or high quality photographs, we see much more detail. Artists select the details that are important to their own picture and what they want to accomplish within it. These are important aspects of being a real artist. You will get your information for the picture from a real object (a reference) and you will see the techniques for putting that information on the page within the teacher’s example. Techniques are methods of using artistic materials or processes for drawing and painting. While there are many things to learn about art, we will focus on art techniques in these summer lessons. 

Gather drawing materials and reference.

You will need a regular graphite pencil, a plastic eraser, and a sheet of drawing paper.

You will need a photograph of a colorful bird. You can get these from calendar pages, from the internet, or from a book on birds at the library. You do not need to be concerned about copyright issues because your picture will not be published. My picture is published on this site, so I did not use a photograph by another person, but one that I took from the field in my backyard. Look at a photograph of a bird as you draw. You can sit the photograph close beside your drawing paper so that you can see it easily. Now take a look at this week’s teacher example and then set up and make your own line drawing of a bird, following the directions below. 

 Step One: Line Drawing

To draw the bird, look at the outside edges of the bird. Also look for shapes that you can put onto the paper. Start by drawing lines that show these edges. Try to fill the page without having major parts, such as the head, go off the page. Do not erase lines too soon. When some lines aren’t right, go back to that area of the paper and draw over them. There are no mistakes in drawing. Each correction means that you are seeing the object more clearly and accurately.  Draw, redraw, and finally erase lines that make the shapes confusing or that do not belong.

If you critique your work, always compare it to work you have done previously, and not to the teacher example. The example is only here to show you what a line drawing might look like when working from a picture of a bird. Your drawing will be different and should look like it came from your hand, not from my hand, as your teacher.   

Step Two: Adding Color

Fill in the spaces that are the bird, with color. See in the example how the color is laid onto large areas of the paper in light, even tone. Do this by using light pressure with the pencil as you draw back and forth. You are actually making lines so close together that they overlap and create a solid block of color. Be sure to use a light touch because pressing too hard smashes the paper fibers so that the paper will not accept another color on top of the first. Take a look at the teacher example and add color to your drawing in this way. I think you will like the results of adding color to your picture. 

StepThree: Full Value Range in Color

Using the same color or a different one, go over the solid areas and apply more pressure on the colored pencil to fill in areas that appear darker. Look at the teacher example. You will notice that a new color was used on the leaves and on the branches in the teacher example. The same color of brown was used on the bird’s back, wings, and tail. The difference in lightness or darkness is in the pressure applied with the pencil, not in the color chosen. What a difference adding darker values makes!  

Step Four: Details and Sharp Edges

You were probably very pleased with the results of your picture in the last step. Adding darker values to a picture makes a big impact. Most people would quit at that stage, but there is one more thing you can do to give your work a finished look. Add details such as texture and create sharp edges where needed. By adding more pressure with the pencil as you draw, lay down the darker values. Use darker colors as you gently and evenly apply them over the lighter solid areas.

Now look at the teacher example for the final step. See how the bill of the bird has been outlined with a thin, crisp line. The wing has been refined by drawing lines around the edges of the feathers. Details are added to the tree branch using a sharp pencil. Dashes are drawn on the lower portion of the branch and lines are drawn in other parts to show surface textures. The outside contours of the leaves are defined so that you can see the jagged edges. Lines at this stage in the drawing are made in color, not in pencil. To create details the colored pencils must be sharp. Sharpen the pencils often as you draw. Look for texture and add the types of lines or marks that will show the texture of the object. Older students can note that the line thickness is not the same throughout the picture. You can see this on the bird’s leg and the tree branches. Thicker lines are used to make certain parts of an object stand out. Thinner lines are used when you want an edge to disappear.

I hope you enjoyed the process of adding color to a picture using colored pencils. Join me next week to learn new techniques in pencil drawing as we look at everyone’s favorite subject: food!

Your art teacher,

Brenda Ellis