How To Draw A BirdLet’s admit it: knowing how to draw a bird is one of the “must” skills. There are only a few common themes even children often attempt to draw almost instinctively. Bird is among them. To learn some simple bird drawings is in fact very easy and I’ll show you here how to do it. Once you know the basics - the “recipe” - it may surprise you how simple it is. On the other hand an entirely different thing is if you attempt to draw a real bird or to make a real bird drawing from photo, which you want to draw realistic. There you simply should be as exact as possible and capture every important feature. But I can assure you, that even such seemingly “difficult” drawing is in fact simple, because the process of drawing is exactly the same as for any other object.
click the image to enlarge
I show you first how to draw a bird – in general, simple approach. Here you’ll quickly master the fundamentals of bird’s body. Before drawing an outline, try to observe the bird’s body proportions on the picture above. Please do not watch the feather layer or similar details - yet. Simply see how big is the head in comparison to the trunk, how long is the tail…and, that the beak is directed slightly upward. Every bird – as we all perceive it – has a beak, a head, a trunk (body), two legs and a tail.
click the image to enlarge In logical order, someone may start drawing bird from the trunk and someone else from the head. I used to start to draw birds from the head, while at the same time intensely observing the proportions of both; head and trunk. These two body parts must be in good balance when you draw a bird from the very rough beginning if you want to be satisfied with your finalized drawing. Nevertheless, it is very difficult to say which way is the correct one to start with. It is individual and it also depends on your drawing skill level. I would say, also try to use your intuition a little, because drawing is a creative activity and you often cannot make it simply by following a prescribed manual. Every bird has different body proportions. For instance, kingfisher, that small tiny cute creature has the beak almost the same size as its body. In such case you should pay special attention to the size and shape of the beak because it is one of the main features on your bird drawing.
click the image to enlarge Generally, a bird’s trunk is almost always a teardrop-shaped fuselage. When you draw a bird always keep in mind that bird, in fact, is a small living airplane. As always, use tilted pencil, loose grip and your lines will be much stable and exact. Now you can join the head circle and the body fuselage together by gentle curves that will create the bird’s neck. At this stage, the drawing – sketching, is still very rough so make as many pencil lines as necessary. Add the tail, mark out the wigs – just approximately, outline the beak and draw the legs. While drawing and sketching these basic body parts, always keep your eye on the good balance and proportions of the entire drawing. At this stage you have a basic body outline of a bird.
click the image to enlarge You can erase the excess pencil lines and slowly get closer to the real shape. If possible start from the head, which naturally leads you to draw the beak.
click the image to enlarge Observe once more the ready bird drawing on the top and pay special attention to the position of the eye. Note, that the eye is closer to the beak, so outline the eye first only by a weak pencil line, very gently.
click the image to enlarge Bird’s tail serves as a supporter when sitting and it often moves up and down depending on the bird’s position. The tail consists of several long feathers assembled into a fan-like shape and it actually looks like feathers piled up on each other.
click the image to enlarge Erase the rest of all unnecessary initial pencil lines and you have a beautiful picture to add to your collection of bird drawings.
click the image to enlarge You may be wondering why I have chosen Kingfisher. Simple; I like Kingfisher. It’s a lovely and clever small creature and you may be lucky if you spot some in wilderness. Besides that, Kingfisher is also an excellent and easy exercise of how to draw a bird.
click the image to enlarge Before you make the first pencil strokes, try to divide the body into smaller sections. Both the head and the trunk are ellipses. You can also notice that the back curve continues directly to the beak. It is – of course – an imaginary line, but it helps a lot to create balance and capture the best proportions. When you draw a bird you need to seriously capture 2 basic body volumes as accurate as possible in the beginning. Those are the head and the trunk.
click the image to enlarge From now on you can begin to refine the detail drawings. Observe how each part on the body is of different color. Divide these areas. Outline the eye. Please make a special attention when you draw the eye. Notice how close the eye actually is to the beak. It almost touches it. Almost every bird has the eye very close to the beak. But when we draw birds out of our heads (without seeing one) we tend to draw the eye in the middle of the head and wondering why this bird looks so unnatural. You’ve just discovered a drawing technique trick of knowing how to draw a bird.
click the image to enlarge Draw the eye. Draw it in details if possible. If you’ll have the eyes ready, suddenly the bird will start being more alive than only a drawing. Work out the beak as best as you can. Kingfisher has rather huge beak comparing to the bird’s body. Such beak needs a little detailed “make up”.
click the image to enlarge By very gentle pencil touch, outline the feathers on the wings and on the back. These weak lines will serve you as important guidelines when you draw a bird in color (pencils or other medium). Make sure you have the eye done right. Notice that the eye is darkest in the middle. There are two small light reflection spots on the upper side of the eye. Draw them, I mean use your pencil-shaped eraser or kneaded eraser and make those highlight spots there. Those light spots will make the bird look very realistic.
click the image to enlarge Now you can begin to put color. The reason I started with orange colored body parts is that those are the easiest to color. Blue colored feathers need a little detailed work. So work out the orange color first. Notice that the feathers on the bird’s belly are made by single pencil strokes of different intensity. Some parts are darker orange and some are very light.
click the image to enlarge When you have the orange part almost ready, you can begin to put color on the blue parts. I would recommend coloring all in the same intensity without pushing the pencil. Just blunt light blue color. Mind however, that you make the pencil strokes in the same direction as the feathers – simultaneously. That will create a natural realistic look.
click the image to enlarge Although I am teaching you here of how to draw a bird, I am also a human, making mistakes; so I want to show you what I just did. I was “too much in a hurry” and made too strong wing feather contour outlines. Originally I didn’t want to let you see this mistake but since we all can learn from this I want to show it to you…not to make the same “quick step”.
click the image to enlarge Here I erased and softened these feather outlines. Now they are acceptable but we shall work them out later.
click the image to enlarge Here comes a little difficult part. But only a little. The feathers on the bird’s head and the neck (collar). They are combined with darker spots. These spots are an effect of layers of the feathers.
click the image to enlarge In the first paragraphs I mentioned that to learn how to draw a bird you need to master how to capture two basic body parts; the head and the trunk. When you draw Kingfisher, the beak is very distinctive and needs a special attention in order not to destroy the drawing you’ve just made. I used two color pencils to create the best possible look of the beak. Combine these two color pencils on a separate paper first. Leave the bright line in the middle of the beak and try to make the shades on the beak looking as natural as possible.
click the image to enlarge Gradually continue to put darker blue on all blue parts where necessary. On the back, you can occasionally use also orange. Be very careful with orange color on the blue parts because you’ll easily get an unwanted green. The green color actually is there, but very weak. Almost insignificant.
click the image to enlarge It is better if you add a good background color when you draw a bird. The background color should come as the last – if you draw on white paper. Good idea is to draw on colored paper from the beginning. Kingfisher’s natural environment is water with greenery. I put this moss green background so that the white part on the throat will also be visible better.
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Do you like this drawing? Was it helpful? Let us know what you think about it. Write your own ideas and or impressions. We HIGHLY APPRECIATE your opinion. It helps us grow and get better. What Other Visitors Have SaidClick below to see comments from other visitors to this page... BETTY RHEA IM 73 AND I HAVE BEEN TRYING ON MY OWN FOR SOME TIME NOW. I LOVE BIRDS, AND MY HUSBAND FOUND ME YOUR WEB SITE, AND I LOVE IT. I AM DISABLED, SO I HAVE ... Amazing Amazing, again! I really love your drawings, although my birds always end up skinnier than yours.. Guess I just don't like big ones. Your drawing is lovely ... Thank you Amazingly good this site is awesome I'm only 9 yrs old and my teacher said that I'm good and now the principal said I'm the best artist of the school and ... birds i think that the drawings that you drew was cool and awesome. i also think that when you drew this you was on point and focused on what you were drawing....
drawing is fantastic
a good job it was really fantastic i learnt to draw 2 birds and it was easy thank you so much drawing is lovely DOg gone it! I can not belive this! This was supurb and a very helpul drawing tutorial. I might win the art contest with these techniques. i like this website i like it becouse it is clear to copy and easy to folow
Brilliant!
I love this web!...It really helps me draw and i love the step - to - step information. help! it's hard and i don't know how to do it LOLOLLOLLOLL This is hard but it is nice!!! wow I'm doing a social brochure and with this i was able to draw one easy coolio really,really helpful and I liked what they taught you WOW They are gooooooooood esier can you make it more simple
birds3673575
i thank the birds are soooooooooooooooo awsome i drew like 400 of them! beutiful birds this truly helped me draw birds OMG OMG!! i have never seen anyone sketch or draw anything like this before! i'ts amazing and very helpful for me cause i have art classes. thank u sooooo ... birds i cant do it wow Wows me this is amazing thanks for taking your precious time to post wow I'm still amazed. Great help, clear guidelines! fantastic! My 8 yr. old found this a great help. Her confidence improved a lot for sketches. It is perfect for beginners. Thanks. birds sketch wow! It's nicely sketched and I want to do it but i can't
Awesomeee
Excellent illustration, thank you! :)
parrot
i want a beautiful parrot good the fist one was good but sow how to do the scenting bit by bit
ABOUT MY THINKING
I THINK THAT U SHOULD AAD MORE PATTERNS IN THIS PAGE SO IT WILL BE MORE BETER. Homework The page really assisted in my biology homework( Drawing P of N's) Thanks !!!! Thanks for the tips and how to draw birds My brother and I want to be artists if not real teachers and this is a great way to learn how to draw birds and other sorts of stuff. I love drawing when ... hi cool bird i thought o cool..(: peace out triangle you guys are great artists. We think you know how to draw everything. Do you know how to draw a beautiful house with lots of details. I bet you would be great at it so I think that ... pokemon lover GIRL I LOVA BIRDIES WOW lots of detale. realistic BIRDS ARE AMAZING! TO ME BIRDS ARE THE CUTE LOVING FLYING LITTLE/BIG THINGS -well not really my fav- BUT U KNOW I LIKE THE FIRST PIC OF THAT BIRD BETTER THEN ANY! WELL ... Love this page! Thanks so much this is the easiest thing i have ever done!!!!!!!!! VERY NICE VERY NICE THANKS good! LOVELY! dead.. Very Cool! This site is awesome! It helps a person who’s not that good at drawing to motivate themselves more such as me lol... Just want to say thanks this site ... really cool Very Helpful! Thanks- Resource for Birds If you need a bird photo to view (for personal use) try this site. Great bird photos pretty:) it`s very pretty!
awwwsome!!!!!
im taking art class this year and im practicing.
I Love Drawing and Colouring.This website helped me drawing a bird.Otherwise my drawing was the worst in the class.now i am the only girl who learned to draw
awesome this is the best drawing Awesome!!! This is a great website and im only ten and im the best drawer in my class and i copied the first bird from looking at the computer and they put it up ...
suggestion
you should make a video of this Sparrow I thought this was by far the best how to draw website for birds. I'm not sure if mine will look as good as the example on here, but it was nice to have ... wow this is awesome i think this helped me lot thhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaannnkkkkkkssssssss aaaaaaaaaa loooooooooottt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How to draw a bird
That was unbelievable cause it actually learned me how to draw a bird and it was superb :):):):):):):):):):)::::::::)))))))) thanks thanks so much this step by step guide helped me draw a great bird
Unbelievable!
When I saw your drawing I felt like WOW! MUUURRRRPPPPP i think the artist should be more specific cause i am 10 years old and just want to draw a stinkin bird :)
how to draw a bird
I love drawing the tail of legs and colouring it, it is a cool one thats why i tried to draw it but any way it was sweeeeeet King Fisher I liked drawing the king Fisher but the bick is hard. sWeEt That is so SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AMAZING i think the 1st one was amazing! drawing skills i think it was the best drawing skills eyer in the world. i wish i could draw like that cevenden i like it ahhh i wanted to know how to draw a quick and easy bird. 'cmon Simple drawing Hi.1st of all i just want to tell you guys that i want to know how to draw a simple bird.NOT HOW TO DRAW THE HARD 1!So can you please just show me that?... tori it is amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THANK U! THANK YOU SO MUCH! You really helped me draw the 1st bird very well. It looks great! You are a great artist! thanks again! i loved it i think this site is amazing the drawings worked out great but would be easier if the pictures were bigger LOSERS OR NOT YOUR NOT LOSERS O.K I THINK THIS IS AWSOME PEOPLE WOULD LOVE IT BUT ITS KIND OF TO HARD AND IM TRYING TO BE IN 1ST PLACE. MY opinion IS THAT I DONT LIKE IT.............SORRY ... IS THIS FOR REAL!?!?!?!? I was looking everywhere for a good site on 'how to draw birds'. All the websites came up with childish juvenile drawings that anyone could draw without ... Kingfisher it is very nice i will try it now, by by plain thank you won't do 100,000 thank you's i was thinking it was going to be hard but i guess not. claymashu nice drawing though i feel as if you needed to put more shades in-between feathers to make it look more realistic. pictures i like this site, but maybe if there was a reference picture, it would be easier to see what the bird was supposed to look like at the end. not easy this is nt so easy to draw lol (^^^) i dont get this drawing tooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo hard i did not get a single bit of it Thanks this is a very useful page I already have it in my favorites and you have other things to not only birds so thank you because today I didn't know what ... Thanks This site is amazing it helped me a lot. Thanks This is a great website! Thank-you. sketching tonics awsome i just love the step by step process it made me a better drawer keep making these stuff your awsome this is awesome thank for the help
watz up with diz pic
i lov diz pic ya'll B WOW! I was writing a poem about nature and I used some pictures to show how amazing nature is! This really helped me show just that...I'M 11 TO! awesome these are really good just dumb down the instructions they are hard but the pics are the best ive sseen good great a very good bird picture the bird pictures are very good now i can draw a beautiful bird thank you for the nice bird pictures hi i think it is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo studied butterbird321 the first bird was right on ii love drawing it thank you soooo much love that bird!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D Kingfishers are my fave bird kingfishers are my favourite bird. i absolutely loved this tutorial!
kingfisher
the kingfisher is very nice Thank u The drawing was really really helpful.I am really grateful to u for helping me draw so easily.
good but how i give it life.
I like it so much thanks, but what i would like to know is how i make it look alive.! awsome! wow!THAT IS SO AMAZING.im 9 and i drew a top notch bird. awsome! wow! awsome! wow! big bird i think it could use a little tree in the first picture WOW Thanks it really helped me im only 9 but I drew it exactly and now my dad is totally impressed
drawing
this is good and it kinda helps..... but not for the people who cant draw for their lives...... they need something that will draw it for u (: lol what charles thinks its okay what charles thinks i like it I love drawing birds! i like the article, especially the steps to colouring the bird. Sometimes it is easier to sketch it than colour it, so that really helped! Bird Drawing This site and page helped me a lot by drawing a bird my drawings look great now cause i didn't know how to draw the bird. I was wondering do you have any ... Awesome! I was desperately in search of how to draw a bird and when I found this; it helped me immensely! My assignment was due the following day, I had to draw ... This was awesome This was awesome! As soon as the pictures popped up on the computer it was all easy to draw my picture. It looked hard but your steps and your specialty ... Awesome I actually drew these birds out first and coloured them in, took a pictures then uploaded it onto my computer. It helped me to draw some beautiful pictures ... awsome i think some of ur art work is wicked awsome im a good artist my self and i love ur artwork it is better than mine i am a 13 year old girl and i adore ... Tom This was very helpful and fun. The steps are simple to understand and allowed me to go into that concentration state of mind and the drawing ended up ... cool Cool!
cool
this stuff is SO awesome I can hardly draw that good who-ever did these drawings did a excellent job!!!!!
Love the step by step
Love this, site, was easy to follow and was able to do it with great resulth with a class of year 5 and 6 students,
My Thanks
Hey man very many thanks I really appreaciate your drawings Steps Nice drawings but the steps are to short like a entire body of a bird on one step then the rest maybe you should do head first wing etc so the drawer understands ... Awesome These are some great tips for someone who likes to draw birds and wants to improve Birds I think that the drawings were beautiful but they were a little hard awsom birds. I think your birds are asome and amasing. they are also fantastic and great.THE coler makes the picter stand out. my sister thinks the first one is butiful.... pretty good This was a nice way to draw a bird but fortunately for me I could always draw in fact 2 years ago I won first place in the birding festival drawing contest ...
My " Dog ".
Step 1. First Drawing The first one really helped it looked very professional and all my friends were saying u r an AWESOME artist thank you so much >.<
the bird
i think this page is very good because its simple and the work still turns out really good!!! so i recommended it!!!
My Version Of A Puppy
Step 1.Start with a big circle for the head and then add the facial guidelines. You will then draw the nut shape of the puppy's body. Awesome This thing is freakishly awesome!!!!!!!! sagheer87 This is very nice and easy. I learned how to draw bird
Very Helpful
I drew the first bird.. super quick and easy!
Katie
Thank you so much for this tutorial! love your drawings i love your drawings i think other people will learn to do great drawings like yours because their soooooooooooo great good drawing your drawings r great i mean really great wow its easy to draw now i dont have to do any mistakes again kingfisher drawing it is BRILLIANT!! :( hard hard! UNBELIEVABLE i'm amazed ! i never new i had it in me but i can draw and this has helped me a lot , thank you . THIS WAS GREAT!!! It helped me whole lot Return From Draw A Bird To Home Page. |
