![]() The torso on a dog or cat is parallel to the ground. Birds have a tilted torso compared to humans. Otherwise your bird ends up shaped like an egg.Ħ. I also tend to make the feathers sparser in these areas.īoth changes push the neck back and that in turn brings the head forward. In my bird images, you’ll see I use darker or dirty (desaturated) color underneath the beak and behind the cheeks. See? This is why you need photo references!Įspecially underneath the beak and around the sides of the cheeks. If you’re picturing Chilly Willy, Pingu, or the team from Madagascar, they can’t help you because none of them have nostrils, mwhahahahha! Quick! Without looking, where are a penguin’s nostrils? Are they hard or soft? In the case of a toucan, the nostrils are so well protected by the outer edge of his beak, it’s hard to find them in photo references. Some birds like toucans, macaws, puffins, and my young Elf Owl here have soft, fleshy nostrils that sit in the face, not in the hard beak. Some birds like ostriches, flamingos, geese, seagulls, cardinals, and sparrows have nostril openings in their hard beaks. Then I tried to draw a Toucan and got totally confused when I didn’t see ANY nostrils in the photo reference. (Yes, I’ve had some very strange jobs.) So I was very used to the shape of ostrich beaks and their big nostril openings which sit in grooves towards the top of the beak. I worked in an ostrich hatchery while in college. ![]() But it’s not just the beak that’s important.Ĭheck your photo reference to see where the nostrils sit. What kind of beak does a penguin have?Īhhh, some of you just thought about cartoon birds again, didn’t you?īeak color and shape are an important way to identify the species and variety of bird. We vaguely know that eagles have sharply hooked beaks and ducks have a broad flat beak.īut here’s a test, without looking it up, tell me what kind of beak an ostrich has. If you stop to think about it, you know every bird has a slightly different shape of beak. Read more about eyes and pupils in my article here.Ī triangle with two nostrils- that’s how we assume beaks look. You can minimize the size to make the bird look more preditory. The larger the pupil, the friendlier your bird will look. Look at the texture, color, length, and placement of the feathers before you start shingling the body with leaf shapes.Īlso note that pupil size is important. The feathers on a cardinal are different than those on a penguin or ostrich. If I want my owl to look like an owl, I need to duplicate what I see rather than what I expect.Įvery bird species has unique feather styles and patterns. In the photo reference for my Know It Owl, we’re looking at the face, neck, and belly of the owl where the feathers are softer and more raggedy than the leaf-style feathers. They look like leaves and they’re staggered on a bird like roofing shingles.īut that’s not the only kind of feathers you’ll see on a bird. ![]() We all have a mental picture of feathers. Look closely at the feathers in the photo reference. ![]() This changed how I drew the stamp but it also changed how I colored it.Ģ. ![]() The hard beak with soft nostrils in my photo reference was much different than I expected. I talk more about the value of photo references in this article here.īefore this project, I’d never drawn an owl before and I’ve only seen them from a distance in real life. Photo references don’t just provide color and texture inspiration, they also help correct the weird misconceptions you carry in your head. You can blend your birds smooth and rely on the drawing of the beak and feathers to send the message “this is a bird”.īut if you want to draw, color, or paint realistic looking birds, you’re going to need more than a beak and feathers. I can draw a basic circle but as long as I put a beak on it, you’ll see a bird.Īnd stereotypes are fine if you’re just coloring for fun. I don’t have to work very hard to draw a bird for you. Because honestly, all an artist has to do is slap a beak and feathers on any random shape and you’ll say “Oh, look at the cute little bird!” So it’s not surprising that most of the artists creating line art, stamps, and coloring books draw generically shaped birds. Donald Duck, Daffy Duck, and Big Bird are basically humans with beaks on their face and feathers on their rump. We have a very skewed impression of birds. Chances are, when you hear “bird”, the first two things that pop into your head are feathers and beaks. ![]()
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