Sheppard - Drawing Birds

DRAWING BIRDS

Raymond Sheppard

DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC.

Mineola, New York

Copyright

Copyright 2018 by Dover Publications, Inc.

All rights reserved.

Bibliographical Note

This Dover edition, first published in 2018, is a republication in one volume of the following works by Raymond Sheppard: How to Draw Birds (The Studio Publications, Inc.: London and New York, 1943) and More Birds to Draw (The Studio Publications: London and New York, 1956). The text has been newly reset.

International Standard Book Number

ISBN-13: 978-0-486-82032-3

ISBN-10: 0-486-82032-7

Manufactured in the United States by LSC Communications

82032701 2018

www.doverpublications.com

CONTENTS

Making a Start

HOW TO DRAW BIRDS

INTRODUCTION

Quite recently I was asked by someone, why I liked drawing birds so much. Well, I had never really considered whyI just drew them, but when you really come to think of it, you know, there are a lot of amazing and interesting things about birds that most people dont realise.

Just think of all the varieties of plumage, in what lovely patterns this is arranged, on some birds so indescribably delicate. But did you know that all this pattern, so lovely in itself, is there to serve the bird a very useful purpose? It is really a sort of camouflage, about which we have heard such a lot recently, a protective coloration which merges itself into the birds natural background of rushes, grass or stones, and as long as the bird is motionless it is invisible to its enemies. I expect our camouflage experts have learnt a lot from the study of these protective patterns and colours of birds. This colour, too, is never quite the same. I was watching some lapwings the other day by a lakeside, and sometimes their dark backs appeared quite grey, and then perhaps the light would catch one, and it seemed to glisten like shot silk with purples and greens.

Those big aeroplanes which fly overhead look rather like great birds, dont they? You see, the men who design them have been studying the shape and flow of lines of a bird, which they call its streamline, and they have tried to adapt these shapes to the designs because they know that birds are the most perfectly streamlined creatures in the world. But I am afraid man has got a long way to go before he produces a flying machine as efficient as some of the birds. Look at the sea-gull, how easily he floats on effortless wings. Throw a piece of bread in the air and he swoops with the precision of a Spitfire. Of course man will never be able to invent a covering for his aeroplanes which is as efficient as the birdsI mean feathers. Nothing else we know of combines such lightness and flexibility with such strength. It is these wonderful things,featherswhich make it possible for such a heavy bird as the swan to fly many thousands of miles on migrating. You would never dream this possible to see him waddling along the ground like something out of a Silly Symphony.

Arent there a lot of exciting things to know about birds? You know, the more you watch and observe them as they go about their ordinaryI should say extraordinarylives, the more amazing and wonderful things you will find out about them. I dont know of any other living creatures who are so much the masters of every element. Why, some ducks, besides being very strong flyers, not only swim on the water but under it as well and dive and walk! Of course to be able to do this they have developed perfectly and beautifully shaped bodies. It must take a very quick little brain to control the energy required for such rapid and varied action. This bright bird-brain looks at you from every avian eye. No wonder that all through the ages mankind has been absorbed and fascinated by the study of bird-life.

On the temple walls of ancient Egypt you may see carvings and low reliefs of the birds men venerated and worshipped for three thousand years. Ages ago in China, artists had captured for ever on silk, graceful attitude and delicate pattern. Monuments to the eternal appeal of birds are these lovely relics, caught in still attitude upon the ageless stone and silk.

I think that the real reason I like so much drawing birds is not entirely because I am so interested in their lives and actions, but more so because of the innumerable patterns I can make out of their so varied and graceful movements, the limitless groupings, arrangements and placings of curves and lines and shapes that arise from their ever-varying postures. It is so exciting trying to get just the right lines, to suggest an attitude or rhythm momentarily observed, be it fluent line of swan or heron, or rugged squareness of the eagle. Art and beauty are so inseparably woven together, and birds are undoubtedly the most perfectly formed of living creatures.

Wouldnt you like to be able to draw them yourself? There is nothing to stop you, because the whole secret of drawing is learning to see properly, and we all have two eyes, so that once you have learnt to observe and use your eyes properly you too can get started on this fascinating study of drawing from the living bird. The trouble with most beginners is that they see too much. By too much I mean they become absorbed in details of plumage and delicate pattern before they have learnt to see those big simple shapes upon the surface of which these accessories are placed. Consequently they produce a flat feathered map of a bird.

I have devoted a part of this little book to explaining the basic form and construction of a bird, the few simple masses in which the feathers are arranged. And once you have got interested in these things and learnt what few important facts to look for, it will surprise you what fun you will get out of drawing from living, moving birds.

A METHOD OF APPROACH

Most people I have talked to about drawing birds have said that it must be very difficult because birds move so quickly and never keep still. These people, of course, are thinking about the way they have been taught to draw such subjects as still-life groups or a posed model, where they are told to close one eye, hold a pencil at arms length, and measure up relative proportions that they are unable to judge with their own unaided eyes. This method is bad in any sort of drawing (it makes you see things as flat not round objects, and leads to an expressionless sort of copying) and in our sort of drawing i.e., moving, living birds, it is of course a quite impossible method. Well, you say, just how am I to tackle the subject?

You will remember in the introduction I said that drawing is really learning to see properly. But, I hear you protest, I can see probably quite as well as you can, but I still cannot draw! Perhaps I should have said that seeing properly is really knowing what to look for. The reason your drawing is not good is probably because when you look at a bird your eye is full of a lot of really unimportant details of plumage and small shapes. Now it takes quite a lot of study to be able to see properly and quickly too, the important shapes and main lines or rhythms of a pose. So I have told you a little about anatomy, that is, the construction of birds. After all, if you know how a wing works, for instance, your birds are far more likely to look as if they could fly than if you know nothing about such matters. If you know that feathers are arranged in big masses which can be easily seen, that differently shaped beaks are differently shaped for a reason, your drawings will look more convincing, more real. There are a lot more intensely interesting facts about birds which you will probably find out for yourself when you are watching them. They all help your understanding of the shape of the bird, in deciding what to put in and what to leave out in your drawing, and when you have learnt to do this you are well on the way towards seeing properly and therefore drawing properly. I say well on the way to, because of course there is a lot more in drawing such beautiful creatures as birds than noticing a few dry scientific facts about their construction. But you will understand by now that with these facts in your head you are far better equipped to draw birds in all their charm and grace of movement, in all their subtlety of line, than if you were without such knowledge. I do not suggest, however, that you set yourself the task of learning anatomy like you would a lesson at school, for drawing is not a subject that can be taught like a school-room lessonit is a subject to enjoy, and you will soon discover what an exciting adventure it will become. So refer to the anatomical part of this book, just when you feel the need tolook for the things I have pointed out on the birds themselves. Look and observelook and observe and drawand drawand draw again. That is the way, the interesting way too, to learn.