To draw something is to own it. You take home a sheet of paper with an image filtered through you, and you have an intense experience of the subject that can’t be taken away. I once sat for hours at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon with a sketchbook and made exactly two drawings. What I learned from that observation was that the canyon is a set of horizontal shapes stacked one above the other and fantastically carved by wind and water. A laminated land form. That experience was more than twenty years ago but I still can see it vividly, a side effect of looking long and carefully and transmitting that image from my eyes to my hands. Could there be there some neurological change from this sort of concentration and interpretation? I wonder.
One reason to draw a real live bird, to spend so much time with your subject, a pencil and pad, and your very own hand-eye coordination, is that when you have a drawing, the esssence of that bird is yours to keep. You have absorbed it’s every motion, nuance, feather tract and life-force and it becomes a member of the academy of brain cells and nerve fibers. If, someday, you see that species again, you have the reserves to work from, the muscle memory, and the proportions are stored where you can retrieve them again.
This kind of observation of living, moving birds gives you the same intimacy, mixed in with adrenalin and a frantic attention and sense of urgency. These are some images drawn on recent trips to Cairns, Australia and Barro Colorado Island, Panama. The Grand Canyon changes very little while you draw it, you can be sure of that. Birds live fast. They don’t hold still, at least you can’t count on them to hold a pose. How does one catch their image on the fly? More tomorrow…
I am really looking forward to your next update. I’m amazed by your bird sketches, they are so full of life and have such volume. Terrific work.
Comment by Rich — January 26, 2007 @ 4:36 am |
[...] But there are a few good reasons to go low-tech here, and I covered some of them in an earlier post. One reason I put down the camera and picked up the sketchbook was simply practical: I was chasing [...]
Pingback by 5 Steps to Better Bird Drawing « Drawing The Motmot — February 2, 2007 @ 12:51 pm |
Although I’m completely devoid of artistic abilities, I know good art when I see it. I think these sketches are superb.
Comment by MC — February 9, 2007 @ 7:37 am |
your art skills are magnificent. the birds look as if god printed them down on paper.you must be very good with animals to look not only outside of the animal but inside also.i love animals and i see the true potential of a animal and the love of them,and you can capture the true essence of the love and different personnality of them.i only wish to one day learn how to sketch that way one day, so please put more beautiful sketches down because i am only 11 yrs. old with a lot more to learn about art.
Comment by justin stewart — June 10, 2007 @ 7:00 pm |
LOVE these bird drawings! I can feel the weight and the health of these birds! Like your handwriting too! Do you have any pet birds?
Comment by Joni Solis — November 12, 2007 @ 9:01 pm |
I don’t have any pet birds currently. I had chickens when I was a kid, and a cockatiel for a brief period until a roommate left a window open (I still miss the bird, but not the roommate).
Comment by zeladoniac — November 13, 2007 @ 1:08 am |
Better late than never with this comment! This really is a wonderful summation of the beauty and value of drawing from life, especially drawing birds from life. I’m fairly new to drawing birds from life but I do know the excitement of working from life. It is more than just a sense of urgency, though that is certainly there. Something also seems to happen on an almost neurological level as you say. You learn in a way that I think really hasn’t even been named yet.
Back when I used to teach art I pleaded with my students not to work from photos. Ironically I now do so myself quite a bit right now, but more out of necessity than choice. If I were still teaching art this entry is one of the first places I’d point students.
Comment by Ken Januski — November 8, 2008 @ 6:50 pm |
i think that your work is very well sketch out and i will very a preshatit if you were to send me some of you latiest work from your sketch pad or your pappers and that will be all
Comment by rasheme — June 3, 2009 @ 5:58 pm |