I've never had the inclination to become a wildlife painter but I do enjoy drawing birds. they are challenging subjects because they are always on the move and they strike poses - if you see what I mean!

Capturing their characteristic movements is my chief interest but paradoxically the following sketches were nearly all done from mounted specimens in Ludlow Museum's collection. Drawing skins as they are known in the trade is a good way to get started because you can study the form and structural detail of individual species.

Another valuable method is to copy drawings by good artists. This way you get to appreciate the character of drawing media and how the marks made by different drawing tools - in the hand of an expert - can be exploited to model form and texture.

All of the sketches are taken from one of my A3 spiral sketchbooks on acid free cartridge. Click on the images with a border to open a bigger picture in a new window.

For beginners I suggest making your own studies from these before moving on to better material in books or even trying drawings from life from a bird table or feeder. Have fun!

These little birds are Kookaburra's. They're not my originals but studies of Victor Ambrus drawings from his book 'Drawing Animals'. Victor is well known as a prolific book Illustrator and the resident artist in the Channel 4 Time Team programs.

I've used Wolff's Carbon Pencils for these studies as the author recommends. They produce lovely dense blacks but be careful to use a very light touch when making the initial 'search lines'

The remaining examples were all studies drawn from museum specimens. I've used mostly pastel pencils which can be used dry for blending colours together or wet to create washes.

The first exploratory search lines of this nuthatch were lightly drawn with carbon pencil. The colours were superimposed with the pastel pencils used dry and blended. The first application of pastel can also be used to correct or modify the pencil work which gradually becomes covered. I always take the beak and eyes of the bird further than the wing or tail feathers which have been suggested with direct pastel strokes.

I think this specimen was a greenfinch but the colours are not very convincing. He also doesn't look very comfortable on his perch - I blame the inexperienced taxidermist!

The method used was the same as for the first example but taken further - the pencil work has almost gone and the drawing has been completed in pastel.

The background has been added and worked with a wet brush to soften the pastel marks and also to define the outline around the head. I think with hindsight it would have been better to take colour from the tip of the pencil with a water loaded brush and apply a true background wash.

In this sketch of a swallow the drawing interest is concentrated on the beak, the eye, and the poise of the head. The dense blues and blacks have been built up and blended with a wet brush - the brush marks are evident in the lower part of the neck.

Although less finished than the other examples it is, for me the most satisfying. It feels like he's just ready to fly away. It shows that even a slight drawing has the power to prompt the spectator to interpret in his mind's eye what is likely to happen. But perhaps that's just my own interpretation.

Robert Kirk.
19 June 2006

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