Drawing and painting birds

Birds are beautiful creatures to draw and paint. Many artists make a good effort to paint birds. Birds are now thought to be the only living relatives of dinosaurs because they have a similar bone structure and they lay eggs and make nests.

The easiest animal to draw and paint are birds. This is due to their rounded and tapering shape and absence of a complicated structure. To paint birds it is not necessary to get too far, you can find them at your home garden, in magazines, photographs or any other shops or in the zoo.

Painting birds sometimes calls for the technical skill of the artist. In the first stage great attention must be paid to the initial sketch of the anatomy of the bird. Before starting to paint it you have to do a close study of the structure and shape.

You will observe that the head is an almost perfect circle. Fig. 1 will show different heads and beaks. Do an outline sketch in pencil and once it is done, complete the lines that define the anatomy of the bird.

Fig. 2 will show you the simply drawn body shapes. You will notice I have first drawn only the outline shape and later added the eye, beak, and the wings in detail. With little practise you will soon become good enough to draw a few birds from memory and paint.

See in Fig. 3 how birds can stretch or contract their necks and the way they uses their long legs. Try to extend your skill by studying Fig. 3 for two minutes and carefully draw what you see. This is excellent practice drawing from life.

Before starting to paint feathers avoid the dark colours of the just painted tones blending. It is necessary to let the first coating of paint to dry while a transparent layer is applied which supports the highlight and still is damp small shadows are added to the base of the neck.

Make quick sketches first to determine the character and shapes of the bird you are going to paint. How their legs are bent how long they are, how their heads and neck work, how the head is in relation to the body and the beak. Many people take a leisure trip to the National parks of Kumana and the Yala bird sanctuaries.

The illustration here shows the various birds that live in Sri Lanka.