Want to learn how to draw a bird? In this easy-to-follow guide, we’ll show you how to draw a bird step-by-step, so you can feel confident sketching birds! You’ll learn the basic structure of a bird, and how to build up the shape of the body, adding details and refining the shape as you go. From a few geometric shapes, you’ll learn how to bring your bird to life with simple drawing tools and a variety of techniques.
Birds have wonderfully delightful behaviour. They can entertain for hours, and there’s something to be said for getting away from it all for a few hours to enjoy a spot of birding. So next time, why not take a sketchbook along? Try your skills out with our tutorial, how to draw a bird, and take what you’ve learned out into the wild.
To draw birds convincingly, it’s a good idea to become familiar with their basic anatomy. You can do this by doing quick studies of birds from photographs, then working your way to making real-life observational sketches.
Sketching birds from life requires speed, so keep your drawings quick, and, if possible, observe them when they are relatively still, such as on a bird feeder. But if you’re keen to just get started, then you’ve come to the right place!
In this tutorial, how to draw a bird, we take you from creating the basic geometric form, to building up the shape and finally adding details and texture. You’ll develop a system to quickly get the essential form of a bird down on paper, and learn to apply this formula to sketching other garden birds. Over time, and with practice, you’ll get better and find you can develop your own style.
Once you’ve got to grips with the basic form of a bird, as we show you in this tutorial, how to draw a bird, you can apply these techniques to other types of birds, too. The first step is to capture the angle of the body, and from there construct the rest of the sketch around these initial lines.
Birds, in general, are built using circles. But it’s easy to make your bird too round, so look for the angles where the different parts of the bird meet: head meets body, body meets tail etc. Once you’ve got to grips with this, then your bird will start taking shape.
If you love pencil drawing as much as we do here at Gathered, you might like to check out our pencil drawing for beginners and best drawing pencils guides for more expert tips and knowledge.
We’ve also got carefully curated step-by-step drawing projects, like how to draw a cat and how to draw a dog with artist Matt Breen, and this gorgeous how to draw a tree, by art editor Sarah Orme.
Top tips for drawing birds
- If you’re sketching from life, break down complicated scenes (for example, lots of branches or ruffled feathers) into simple shapes and patterns.
- You don’t need to draw every line or feather on the bird, sometimes just a suggestion will be enough to capture the essence of a bird.
- By using patterns of pencil strokes to fill in the feathers, as we've done here, you can cover a large area in a short time.
- Start a (secret) messy sketchbook. Don’t feel like you must show it to anyone, and in it make quick, 30-second sketches of wild birds. Concentrate on shape and form, and with practice, you’ll find that drawing birds becomes quicker and easier. You’ll also be able to flip through it and see your progress!
- The shape is the most important aspect when drawing birds. If your shape is accurate, then the bird will seem realistic, even without detail.
- Before drawing markings on your bird, lightly outline the pertinent groups of feathers. These groups will help you give structure to the body, face, tail, and wings, and help you get the proportions of the markings right.
- When sketching the body of the bird, add a centre line in the middle of the breast. This will help you maintain symmetry as you’re drawing the breast feathers.
- When drawing the tail – the feathers overlap so that the middle feather is on top, then fan the feathers on either side. So, use this formula when drawing the bird's tail.
- As Neil Buchanan says, when sketching from life (or photographs) draw what you see – not what you think you see!
We love seeing what you create, so don’t forget to share your art projects with us on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, too!
How to draw a bird
Follow this tutorial to draw any garden bird! If you want to draw a specific garden bird, look at pictures of birds and tweak the proportions of the early geometric shapes as necessary, then continue to follow the tutorial as you build up the detail.
For example, long-tailed tits have, no surprises here, a longer tail, so for step 3 – take the tail out twice as long at a horizontal angle. They also have smaller heads and rounder bodies, so make the ovals in steps 1 and 2 more rounded. Clever, eh!
Let’s do another one. Wrens have flatter heads, so in step 2 make the head oval, flatter and more squat to the body. Wrens' tails stick up in the air, so instead of angling the tail down towards the floor, draw your tail lines (step 3) to be sticking up, at approximately a 45-degree angle. Ready to draw a bird?
For the purposes of this bird drawing tutorial, we have used red to show clearly where the construction lines are, then lightened them when adding the detail on top.
To draw a bird you will need:
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