Birds are fascinating creatures to study, with exquisite details that make for stunning and realistic drawings.
Discovering how to draw a bird may appear daunting initially, but it becomes much more straightforward once you understand the basics. Start by sketching general shapes and proportions before moving on to actual sketches of your chosen bird species.
Body
One must observe their anatomy and feather patterns closely for accurate bird drawings. When drawing realistic birds, you must utilize high-resolution reference images as you study their head, beak, eyes, and feather shapes/textures/how they overlap.
Start your sketch by drawing light sketch lines to capture a bird’s posture, proportions, and angles before filling in basic shapes for the head, wings, and tail. Check your balances regularly, as changing them later can be very easy!
Draw a circle for the head and an oval for the body. Draw an S-shape around this oval to indicate where its neck should curve, though a smaller bird might seem as though their head has fused directly to its torso without an apparent channel at all. Don’t forget to include details like its beak curve and any potential “S” shapes in its neck!
Now add the body. To achieve more realistic forms, trace over your basic sketch with more delicate pencil strokes and add details later when working digitally. Remember that you can permanently hide or reveal layers later to work on more information.
Now you can add the wings and tail to complete your bird. The wings should take the form of an inverted cone that tapers off at its tip, while its tail should start more comprehensive at its center before tapering off towards its end. Do not forget the details for its feet!
Head
Proper pencil and paper management is critical to producing an aesthetic piece when drawing a bird head. Doing this will prevent smudges and create a neat finish. Using an eraser regularly can correct mistakes which will help your drawings to be as accurate and detailed as possible. Keeping pencils and papers stored safely in protective cases or bags ensures they last longer while providing optimal results.
Start by drawing a circle for the head of your bird. This can be done freehand or with an instrument such as a drawing compass; feel free to make it slightly larger than its actual size if desired. Using this guide as your starting point, draw two curved lines which meet in the middle at an abrupt end – these will become its eyes.
Create more realistic eyes by drawing two smaller circles within the larger one for your bird’s eyes, then add another smaller circle inside to form its eyeballs. Finally, create its visible leg by drawing a line that starts at the connection point between the head and body ovals and curves up toward its tip – this should ensure its realistic placement between head guides.
Add claw marks on each bird’s foot by drawing some curved lines that connect. As this may be tricky, practicing it beforehand would be wise.
Feathers
Feathers play an integral part in birds’ appearance and health and provide them with flight. Feathers come in all sorts of shapes and sizes with many colors available – you must study these details when drawing birds! By paying close attention, more realistic drawings can result.
Once your bird is sketched out, it’s time to add feathers. A light pencil line works best so any mistakes can easily be erased; once satisfied with your pipes, darkening them with a pen or marker will give more definition to its feathers and create more realistic feathers.
To draw bird feathers, start with the rachis, the central part. This should be straight but slightly curved in some spots. Next, add barbs – shorter and steeper at its core, then looser towards its end – before shading in your feather outline. Once this step has been completed, you can shade its design with colors in detail.
Once again, sketch the bird. When drawing its feathers on its wings and tail, remember that these could either be tucked under its body or extended away, which will determine their angle about how the feathers bend with wind currents. In addition, its tail feathers may have longer and fluffier feathers than those elsewhere on its body.
Tail
Once you complete the outlines of a bird’s body, wings, and tail, it’s time to add details. To draw a bird’s beak, begin by drawing two curved lines that intersect at a sharp point before sketching a line across its head that resembles its neck and tracing a circular shape at its end to help visualize its size.
To create feathers, draw wings with wavy lines starting at the bottom part of an oval. On one wing, connect a series of circular shapes overlapping one another while drawing straight upper lines and wavy bottom lines to indicate feathers on another branch. Once drawn your wings, you can erase any unnecessary sketch lines.
Sketch the legs of the bird by drawing cylindrical forms, while its feet draw pointed shapes that resemble claws. Finally, shade its nails to give your drawings more depth.
To complete your drawing, draw a branch onto which your bird can stand using short curved lines. Add feathers at the end of its tail and wings as the final touch to complete this work.
Once your drawing of a bird is completed, color can add life and detail. To avoid over-shading your picture with shades that go beyond what your reference image shows, you can use light pencil strokes, gradually adding colors as you slowly build up the color using techniques such as hatching, cross-hatching, and stippling to achieve different textures and tones – make sure that when selecting colors for specific parts of its body from your reference image!
Feet
Birds are an engaging subject to draw, with their varied shapes and sizes representing freedom, nobility, fertility, bravery, and many other virtues. Drawing birds can help relax you and unwind after a stressful day at work and build fine motor skills while stimulating creativity.
Begin by sketching a basic outline of a bird using geometrical shapes. Next, add details, such as its beak and teardrop wings. Finally, complete the drawing by including feet and claws before shading to bring the picture to life.
Always add claws or nails to the feet of any bird when drawing them, using either two curved lines per leg with small circles inserted as feet between each pair of cables for easier sketching.
Birds typically have three toes on each foot; we will only show two for this example. Remember that birds have webbed feet for swimming and talons to catch prey; it’s essential to research each bird species you intend to draw, as each may have different feet.
Do you dream of drawing an eye-catching peacock, an adorable hen, her eggs, or something in between? With these easy bird drawing tutorials, you’re on your way in no time! Don’t forget to tag Adobe with any sketches you create on social media, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter; we love seeing what people make! Give Adobe Fresco a free try on iPad or select Windows devices; we hope to see what comes from your creativity next time – happy drawing!
