Voliere

At the Voliere today. I tried something different today and warmed up by drawing the birds from memory. The goal was to sharpen my attention.

Interesting to compare with the actual drawing from observation I did next.

Voliere

Spent half an hour at the voliere at lunch, practicing live bird drawing. Not very visually appealing but it's a lot of fun, birds are very expressive.

Voliere Gestures

Continued to work on bird gestures at the Voliere. One page with toucans and one page with black stilts. Bonus locomotive done during a meeting from imagination ;).

Bird gestures

Doing gestures of birds from the Voliere. Not very visually appealing but I think it's a good exercise. They move a lot.

I did this bird thumbnail from memory when I was back at my desk  later while waiting for a phone call. 

Birds gestures

Again at the Volière sketching bird impressions. No visible progress but I feel more comfortable at each session.

On the drill side, a page of boxes construction and a page of pipes.

Bird "gestures"

Half an hour at the voliere trying to sketch the usual suspects, hornbills and toucans.

Got a cold,  so direct to bed, no drill page!

Toucans Again

I had to go back to the Voliere today. Had forgotten my stool. So I did again quick poses of the toucans.

Toucan and Hornbill shapes

At the voliere today doodled the toucan couple and the crowned hornbill. Still doesn't look very good but I feel I made progress understanding how to simplify the head.

Birds

Spend an hour at the voliere today. I have done several pages of "gestures" but it was more pages of scribbling. It was just after feeding so the toucans were very active and it was impossible to draw them properly. Here is the last page I have. I have added markers at home afterwards. I cannot do the eyes properly, leaving them mostly white or plain. It gives them a  kind of zombie stares ;=

Bird Skulls

The Voliere has a small bird skull collection. Very interesting to draw. Played a little bit with the markers and gel pen. Still issues with the consistency of the lighting. And I still don't understand properly the empty spaces in the skull. It's quite complex.

Three birds

Sketching session at the Voliere.  Still struggling with the birds but I have some ideas what to improve for next week. These birds have a lot of personality, this is going to be a lot of fun when I can sketch them successfully..

Black-necked Stilts

Wanted to go to the Voliere but it was closed. So I stayed out in the freezing cold.  I could only sketch Black Necked Stilts, an unknown puffy bird and a parrot (at the window). Short session. Again, the problem was the speed of the birds, always moving. But I felt more confortable than the first time.

Three Birds

Went for the first time at the Mythenquai Voliere  to draw birds. It's quite small but they have beautiful birds. And was surprised to also see birds bones. Drew three birds. Did only quick layins. Will definitely comeback. Some birds move a lot. Contrary to the swans and ducks, you can see their whole body.