July 1st, 2006 – I have never believed in giving from the wallet, and would rather give from the heart, but had not practiced it much. This year I decided that I would not give my daughters store bought presents anymore and start creating things from the heart.

Aleah is a bird lover, so it was an easy guess as to what she would like me to draw for her. I did subtly ask her what her favorite bird was (The Elf Owl) so I could make sure to include it. I decided to draw her 5 different pictures and a note to put into one of those montage frames. Here are the results.

Analysis – One by One…

Albatross – This was my first drawing for her. I worked to delineate and shade the feathers on the wings which came out quite nicely, but I lost my focus on making sure the eyes say something to the viewer.

Elf Owl – Finding a picture off the net to use, I drew this next as it was a bigger image. The eyes were easy to bring detail into as they are so big. Getting detail on the feathers and how they lay on the body was difficult. It appears much more like hair because of the soft coloring. This drawing could have been improved by another layer of shading and detail separation throughout.

Western Grebes – This was a picture she specifically pointed out as wanting me to draw (although she didn’t know it would be for her birthday). Not having much detail in the original picture, it didn’t take long to draw, and I should have spent a bit more time on pushing into the detail to give it life.

California Quail – I spent quite a bit of time on this quail, and amazingly I drew it differently than many of my other drawings. Most of the time I draw in layers, adding detail as I go and figuring out where more shading is needed, etc. With this drawing, I drew top down, and drew almost to a finished product as I went. The final layer did take some touch ups, but overall it was completed in the first pass. The eye came out very nice with highlighting, and the beak really seems to have some great shadows.

Hummingbird – Needing a 5th drawing, I quickly made the hummingbird in a short amount of time. Another pass over it would have helped tremendously.

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Note – I’ve decided to start posting my drawings to my blog. For a few reasons… To share the art, to stimulate me to draw more, and to keep a record of them all. Click on the small image to get the larger size view. There will be a small flood of posts as I put up all of my back dated drawings, then only as I produce new works.

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5. Drawing – Flying Squirrel