The Laws Guide to Drawing Birds

I purchased this book to see how the author approaches drawing birds, and I am finding it very inspirational and full of excellent details and tips for the beginner or experienced artist. I studied drawing and painting at a major art school and have spent hundreds of hours drawing from life, yet I have never given any serious artistic study to birds in spite of my fascination with birds and considerable knowledge of them. Perhaps I was "chicken" because birds do not hold still and pose for you and are usually only possible to draw in bits and pieces unless you are in a nature lab which has stuffed birds. They are useful too, but you can't capture the energy and spirit of living birds this way. With John Muir Law's book I can benefit from the knowledge that he has acquired from observing and drawing birds for many years. The author offers an outstanding analysis of the form, anatomy and movement of birds in colorful and clear drawings accompanied by concise but detailed explanation. Key drawing basics are covered in the book for beginning artists to get them into the drawing process without worrying about results. In fact, this book focuses on the process of drawing with birds as the specific subject. The importance of direct observation and field sketching is stressed in the book, and the author has included techniques for addressing the challenges of capturing these unpredictable subjects. As true with any subject, you will learn and understand more about birds by drawing them as you observe them even if you do not aspire to skilled work. The book is well organized, thoughtful, and really a lot of fun! Highly recommend for the bird watcher, naturalist, artist, or all of these in the same person.

Wonderfully inspiring book. It encourages the reader to take a more detailed view of the subject, and appreciate the sheer beauty and diversity of birds. There are step by step guides, details of birds skeletons and anatomy. The detailed description of the feathers i found very helpful. There are also guides for paper, paints, field sketching. A very inspiring book, that had i read as a child, might have made me think twice about my career choice, and taken a much more serious interest in art and painting. Hopefully it is not too late for me now to re-discover this skill using John Muir Laws helpful book.

Ótimo livro para iniciantes na arte dos pássaros.

J'avais déjà ce livre en numérique, prêté par un ami, mais dès que j'ai pu, je me le suis offert en papier et je ne regrette vraiment pas (idem pour le Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling du même auteur) Pour moi, c'est LE livre à posséder si on veut dessiner des oiseaux. Il mérite 6 étoiles. Il y a des pas à pas très bien détaillés pour les débutants, aussi bien que des croquis anatomiques très pointus pour les plus confirmés. Des pages entières sont consacrées aux pattes, yeux, ailes, plumage etc. L'approche est claire et pédagogique. Évidemment, le livre n'est pas exhaustif concernant toutes les espèces d'oiseaux, et c'est mon seul regret. Ce n'est pas un livre pour apprendre à copier une multitude de variétés d'oiseaux, mais plutôt un livre qui nous donne les clefs pour dessiner n'importe quel oiseau, à terme et avec de l'entraînement. N'empêche que j'aurais aimé un chapitre consacré aux oiseaux marins, par exemple (il y en a de tellement originaux) et aux vautours, notamment, qui sont les mal aimés et qu'on ne trouve nulle part dans les livres de dessin ou peinture, et qui ont des spécificités qui leur sont propres. Ce n'est pas parce qu'on sait dessiner un cardinal, un aigle ou un canard qu'on sait dessiner un vautour ou un fou à pieds bleus. Attention, livre en anglais.

fabulous book