Bird Drawings

Pencil bird drawings probably don't do a lot of justice to some of the pretty colored birds that are around but we can still find beauty in pencil line drawings.

The simple lines on each bird drawing are meant to show you how easily you can sketch these too.

Try it! -- Copy the outline of this chicken drawing. It's very basic, takes a minute to sketch and looks good.

Simply study the drawing first and see if you can identify the shapes to help you create the bird on paper - the body is a circle and the neck and head would be a triangle.

Once those basic shapes are down, further study is required to build the bird from there.

I hope you agree that this would be a fast, easy drawing for you to complete.

In Australia, we call chickens - chooks. That's just a bit of trivia for you!

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A Dash Of Info About Birds

If you want to be successful with your bird drawings, it is necessary to have some understanding about the subject.

•   All birds have feathers and wings.
•   They all hatch from eggs. These eggs are similar in shape but vary in size and color.
•   Birds don't have teeth, they have a beak.
•   Most birds seek food in the day and sleep at night. An owl is one bird that does the opposite.
•   There are over 8,000 kinds of birds.
•   A barn owl would be the most common bird worldwide.
•   Two birds that cannot fly are ostriches and penguins.
•   No specific type of bird can be found in every corner of the world.
•   There are birds that can sing beautifully.
•   Some birds are so colorful, they can be breathtaking. (I think they were created for artists!)

Drawings of Birds

This pelican drawing took me three attempts to draw successfully.

It was an interesting exercise so I'll share what happened.

I liked the first one I drew and I couldn't see anything wrong with it until I drew the second one.

I realized I hadn't examined the reference picture properly so it was a matter of looking closer to get a better drawing, second time around.

It wasn't until I drew a third pelican when I realized that I didn't have the neck right at all in the second drawing even though I was quite happy with that one.

It was a great learning experience. When you have the time, it's a good way of showing you what to look for when comparing a reference picture to your sketch.

Here is a busy woodpecker making a hole for his nest in a dead tree.

He uses the wood chips to line his nest.

There are lots of different types of nests for every variety of bird.

I was able to complete this drawing in my first year of being a hobby artist.

I was just starting to tinker with adding drawing effects so I applied stippling to the hole to give the perception of 'pecking'.

This drawing of a swan is very basic and perfect for beginner artist practice.

It was fun to draw the water with the reflections.

Swans are graceful water birds. The long neck comes in handy for them to feed on underwater plants.

Now that you have general knowledge about birds, you can start those sketches of bird drawings!

I thought a bird drawing would have some degree of difficulty but I was wrong, there weren't any that frustrated me to the point of distraction.

Most of these I drew while sitting in a comfortable lounge chair.

I realize I still have a long way to go in learning to draw but so far it's been heaps of fun and I have some good drawings. I hope you are getting a good collection together as well.

I really like this drawing of a gull, it only took a short time to produce and again I used the stippling effect which I have taken a liking to.

There is also a terrific selection of drawings of birds that were created by guest artists.

You can find more links to my pencil drawings of birds at the top right of this page or browse my collection of thumbnail drawings where I always have a bird sketch or two.