Drawings of Ravens

Ravens are known to be magical birds in myths and legends, so let's take a look at these drawings of ravens.

First, here is an outline of a raven drawing for you to copy and practice from.

The more you practice your raven drawings, the better you become.

This also depends on how much time you devote each day to your drawings. Regularly practicing drawings in pencil helps you improve all the time.

In order to draw a perfect raven, you need to know a bit about your drawing subject.

A raven belongs to the crow family. I think we all worked that one out!

What is the difference?

Are you wondering "what is the difference between a raven and a crow?"

A raven is bigger than a crow.

It has a larger beak and it's tail is wedge shaped. A crow's tail goes straight across.

Both birds have strong bills and are very loud and vocal.

A raven's wings can span three feet wide.

Ravens are black, but...

The feathers have a purple sheen.

And on the belly, it looks like the feathers have a dull green tinge. Around the neck, the feathers are gray.

So when you do drawings of ravens and you wish to color them, remember to include purple, green and gray.

We describe people with unusually dark, shiny black hair as having raven hair.

I mentioned that ravens were involved in myths and legends. The story goes that The Norse God Odin had two ravens that sat on his shoulders each night and they would tell him what they discovered was happening on their flights during the day.

Ravens were mentioned as black birds in the nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpence".

Sing a song of sixpence a pocket full of rye,
Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie.
When the pie was opened the birds began to sing,
Oh wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the king.

Remember that? So, they have a fair history.

Because the raven is black, it is thought to bring bad luck.

Ravens are not popular because they eat young birds and bird's eggs.

However, they do consume lots of insects and pests which helps our farmers.

Practice Consistently

I did my drawings of ravens with a 2b pencil. And I used a 9b pencil for the shading.

Have you tried to do a raven drawing yet?

Give it a try, you probably won't like your first attempt, but keep going. I promise you'll improve.

Look for shapes in the bird and go from there. Do a small circle for the head and a larger oval shape for the body, then join the circles together with your contour lines. Work with it until you think you have the correct shape.

Keep working on your raven drawings, date them, number them if you have to, and admire your good work.

Whenever I tackle a particularly hard subject, I always number my attempts to gauge how much I improve with each one.

These drawings of ravens didn't scan very well. I think the 9B I used to do the shading was too heavy so next time I'll just stick with 4B pencils.