Drawing Birds: The Essential Guide

Before we draw any birds, we have to understand bird anatomy. This video covers the basics.

Bird feet are a bit different from the feet of other animals. This video discusses the fundamentals - toe layout, joints and webbing.

In this video you will learn to draw a parrot's head from side view. There are about 370 species of parrot around the world, and they don't all look the same. So this focuses on one of the most famous species - the scarlet macaw.

Now that we've drawn a parrot's head, we can try something more challenging. In this video I teach you how to draw a parrot's body in a perched position. As with the previous video, this parrot is a scarlet macaw.

Owls are one of the most popular birds to draw, and in this video you will learn to draw the bird's head from front view.

In this video we explore the owl's head again, but with some added complexity. We draw the owl's head at an angle. I recommend you watch the previous video before tackling this one, as there is some assumed knowledge in this video.

This video features another owl drawing - this time it is the entire body. The owl is drawn in a standard position, with the body held almost horizontal. However, many of the proportions can also be used to draw an owl standing or sitting in a more upright position.

Penguins are quite different from other birds. They can't fly, and they are perfectly adapted to a life in the water. In this video you will learn how to draw the largest, and most impressive penguin - the beautiful emperor penguin.

Despite being such a familiar bird, chickens can actually be a bit difficult to draw. Their heads in particular require a good attention to detail, and can vary considerably between males and females, and between different breeds. That's why this video focuses exclusively on the chicken's head before moving on to the whole body.

The rest of the chicken's body is quite easy to draw relative to the complex head. This video explains how to draw a chicken's body.

Ducks are quite easy to draw. This is a good video if you want to build your skills and confidence with a little less effort.

The duck's body is a bit more challenging than the head. This video explains how to draw the duck's whole body.

It may not be as interesting or as cool as the eagle's head from side view, but this lecture will help you master the next lesson about drawing the eagle's head in 3D.

In the previous two videos you learned the proportions of the eagle's head from different views. In this video we combine that knowledge in a more three dimensional setting. This video will develop your ability to visualize 3D objects.

The European robin is a great representative of the songbirds, a group containing about 4,000 different bird species. A lot of them are small and cute, and the European is no exception!

This little exercise will help you to draw feathers from different angles.

Eyes are a special case when it comes to rendering. Getting eyes right will also add a lot of power to your bird drawings. That's why this lecture focuses exclusively on eyes, especially how their structure interacts with light and shadow.