How-to articles for drawing techniques, procedures, and complete lessons.
In the second half of this tutorial on combining watercolor and colored pencil to create a painting/drawing of a Magpie-Jay, we will focus on the colored pencil aspect, finishing the bird. Check out part 1, if you have not done so already. The Eye As usual in colored pencil drawings, we will begin with the…
Continue reading Magpie-Jay in Watercolor and Colored Pencils (Part 2)
Watercolor and colored pencils act well as standalone media, but also when combined. Watercolor easily covers large areas and gives the painter a fun looseness and freedom, but can be more difficult for creating details. Colored pencils, on the other hand, excel at details, but are tedious for large artworks. In this tutorial, I’ll show…
Continue reading Magpie-Jay in Watercolor and Colored Pencils (Part 1)
In this colored pencil tutorial, I will overview the steps and a few details for drawing a Western Tanager. You may find it helpful to use this tutorial series as reference, for more details on each step in the process. I will be working on Arches hot press watercolor paper, with Polychromos colored pencils, but…
In this tutorial, I’ll explain how to draw realistic bark and apply the same principles to drawing branches or other textured surfaces. Since birds are often perched on bark or other textured surfaces, this will help you better create bird drawings. The main idea is to simplify the object by breaking it up into shapes…
The following is a tutorial for how to draw a Blue-Grey Gnatcatcher with Colored Pencils. This is the approach I take for most of my bird drawings and I hope you will find it helpful as well. It is a long process (5+ hours), so I have broken it down into shorter sections, and this…
Continue reading How to Draw a Bird with Colored Pencils – The Colored Pencil Bird Series
This is the fourth article in The Colored Pencil Bird series. As an example, I will show the step-by-step drawing of a Blue-Grey Gnatcatcher, but the tips and techniques included in these articles can be applied to any bird drawing. After this, check out how to draw the feet. The subject for this drawing series…
Continue reading How to Draw a Bird’s Wings and Tail with Colored Pencils
This is the fifth (and final) article in The Colored Pencil Bird series. As an example, I will show the step-by-step drawing of a Blue-Grey Gnatcatcher, but the tips and techniques included in these articles can be applied to any bird drawing. The subject for this drawing series Drawing feet is always intimidating, but it…
Continue reading How to Draw Bird’s Feet with Colored Pencils
This is the third article in The Colored Pencil Bird series. As an example, I will show the step-by-step drawing on a Blue-Grey Gnatcatcher, but the tips and techniques included in these articles can be applied to any bird drawing. After this, check out how to draw the wings & tail and the feet. The…
Continue reading How to Draw the Head and Body of a Gnatcatcher with Colored Pencils
This is the first article in The Colored Pencil Bird series. As an example, I will show the step-by-step drawing of a Blue-Grey Gnatcatcher, but the tips and techniques included in these articles can be applied to any bird drawing. After the eye, check out how to draw the beak, head & body, wings &…
Continue reading How to Draw a Bird’s Eye with Colored Pencils
This is the second article in The Colored Pencil Bird series. As an example, I will show the step-by-step drawing of a Blue-Grey Gnatcatcher, but the tips and techniques included in these articles can be applied to any bird drawing. After the beak, check out how to draw the head & body, wings & tail,…
Continue reading How to Draw a Realistic Beak with Colored Pencils