DrawWithMike.net

Lauren, you almost (almost) make me want to take up the wacom and digital drawing again! Love this progress (but sticking to my pencils).

lol! Thanks Linda! Honestly, I had mixed feelings at first. Now, I’ve embraced it and I’m determined to produce drawings that look as much as possible like traditional drawings. I’m using everything I learned from Mike, but I’m using another medium.

Without going into details, digital drawing has been a blessing for me and I can encourage anyone else who may have vision problems to try it too. Being able to zoom in wherever necessary is a game changer.

The pheasant is complete now, I continued to work in sections. Although I completed the tail layer last, I moved it below the lower back layer just as I moved the wing layer below the mid back layer earlier. Here it is without the colour coding. I’ll begin on the ground and grasses next.

Sorry for the late update, but it’s that time of year!

I wanted to create an environment for my pheasant to live in. They often crouch in fields of tall grasses, so that was my inspiration.

For the grasses, I used a calligraphy brush of my own, but the Script brush in the Calligraphy category of the Classic library comes with Procreate and will do just as well.

If you’re having trouble pulling long steady strokes for the grass blades, double tap on the script brush to open it in the brush studio. Then select Stabilization in the left-hand menu. This opens several options on the right. Under Streamline, slide the Stabilization option to about 50%. That should help. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Firstly, I create the foreground grasses and shadows on a layer above the pheasant. The ground shadows are created using the Soft Airbrush in the Airbrushing category of the Classic library. Then, I created the background grasses and ground shadows on a layer below the pheasant. Finally, I added layer above all the others and created a suggestion of wispy clouds in the sky. I also adjusted ground shadows until it felt right to me. As always, thanks for following along with me.

At this point, I felt I was finished with this project, but then winter hit us early here in Canada with very cold weather, and so much snow!!! It’s lovely, but I’ve been wearing out my snow shovel . Well, that got me thinking…my pheasant must be coping with all of this snow too. So, I transformed his field into a winter wonderland just in time for Christmas!

Will upload more updates soon….

I always had the feeling that Phil the Pheasant was pushing through snow... and now he is! And in a most creative way.

Thanks, Laurene. It almost makes we want to buy an iPad and download Procreate - almost... but I'm seriously looking at changing all my computers from Windows to Linux over the next year, so it's not very likely.

And early HAPPY CHRISTMAS! to you, and many many thanks for all your enlightening Procreate work.

Mike Sibley wrote: Wed Dec 17, 2025 11:25 am I always had the feeling that Phil the Pheasant was pushing through snow... and now he is! And in a most creative way.

Thanks, Laurene. It almost makes we want to buy an iPad and download Procreate - almost... but I'm seriously looking at changing all my computers from Windows to Linux over the next year, so it's not very likely.

And early HAPPY CHRISTMAS! to you, and many many thanks for all your enlightening Procreate work.

Thank you Mike for providing a safe platform for us to explore art and to grow on our art journey, and especially for providing this platform for Procreate . I’ve learned so much in the past year because I’ve had to think of what I’m doing so that I can explain it to anyone following along.

I’m an undying Windows fan, but unfortunately Procreate is only available on IPads. It’s been a blessing to me to continue exploring my love of animals in art. Something I truly appreciate about Procreate is that its founders have vowed never to introduce generative AI into its products, unlike Adobe. It’s also an inexpensive (after you buy the iPad, that is) one time purchase. No subscriptions. Lifetime updates.

A very Merry Christmas to you and Jenny too, Mike!

This is another stunning example of your creativity, detailed study and knowledgeable explanation of facts Laurene.
It’s a real joy to follow along your lessons

Thanks Artur. That’s very kind of you!

Up to this point, my drawing was done traditionally in Procreate on my iPad. Yes, it’s a digital drawing , but using strictly traditional methods. The next phase is the opposite of this! I took advantage of what Procreate has to offer in order to transform my drawing into a winter wonderland.

In my original drawing, the pheasant’s head was straining forward, as if on alert for any danger. No wonder, since autumn is hunting season! But, I felt that if the pheasant were nestled deep in freshly fallen snow, he would nestle in and pull his head down and closer to his chest.

As I showed when I was drawing the pheasant, I isolated various parts of the pheasant on different layers. That made it easy to move the head back, and then it was just a question of re-drawing how the head meets the neck and upper body. Here the original head is red and the new one is green. Here, I added grasses to the background to emphasize that the pheasant is hiding in tall grasses, and I slowly started to add snow.

It’s important to continue working in layers. If the snow is in the background area, I created a layer behind the pheasant, but above the background grasses. If it’s in the foreground, I created a layer above the foreground grasses. If I were to just add white to the top of a flattened image, I wouldn’t be able to conserve a sense of depth.

I also slightly lightened the sky as it might appear on a snowy day.

I’m using the Soft Airbrush, in the Airbrushing category of the Classic Library for the sky and snow, and as before, I used a calligraphy brush of my own for the grasses, but the Script brush in the Calligraphy category of the Classic library will work just as well.

I added a snow layer below the background grasses layer. This helps to create more depth as well as providing a white background behind the pheasant’s head and back. Again, wanting to add more richness and depth to the drawing, I created another layer below the snow layer above, to create grasses in the distance.
Finally, I turned my attention to the foreground. I created a layer above the foreground grasses, and still using the Soft Airbrush, I created snow on the ground in front of the pheasant.

This is looking rather more than splendid. I can almost see your mind working as you create your own world around the pheasant. And, to me, that's just as it should be. Only then does it all hang together and make sense, because when you create this way - adding what you expect to see - you're building a sense of reality based on your own actual knowledge.

I'm sat in my office making plans for next year, and at least one should be based around a set of thoughts that Jay sent to me three years ago on "Thinking like an artist". It's got me all fired up and ready to start writing a script.

So, from my viewpoint, this is a very timely post. And, of course, a delight to view.