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My Bird

Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2025 9:40 pm
by 28moons
I thought I would post this. It feels wrong and it is. I found myself erasing and erasing. I took the photo at the Los Angeles Zoo. I think I'm dizzy with all of those feathers. It's definitely not perfect. It's going into the "maybe later pile." I am going to drift back to furry friends! BTW, I use a white board to secure my drawings with magnets instead of tape.

Re: My Bird

Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2025 3:01 pm
by Mike Sibley
I think you have two problems here:

First, the head: You're concentrating on detail and not noticing the three-dimensional shaping. Or, to put that another way, I think the three-dimensional form is visually more important than the texture, which can be suggested. The FORM is the first thing we notice, then the texture.

Second, the body: The problem is similar, but not so much about form as SURFACE. Those feathers, in reality, are super-smooth. But you've chosen to interpret them as being full of loose filaments. That's possibly because something in your mind keeps telling you they are made up of filaments. But the most striking thing about these feathers is the LACK of visible filaments.

Now, at the same time, you do need to signal that they ARE feathers. So, have a close look and chose one or two places where the feathers are split to show groups of filaments - to the right of the beak, for instance. Then include them wherever you think best suits your drawing. Those splits alone say "these are feathers".

I hope that makes sense... but I'm not sure that it does. :roll: