Drawing......Again.

It has been a while since I had a reason to draw.....I mean, as a teacher, I used to draw pictures as a teaching tool/method for primary students, but it has been about four years since I have had any students to teach.....and I have been without my usual reason for drawing.  

When I was a child I drew pictures just to be drawing pictures.  I think I am reverting to that reason for drawing, and I like that idea.

Because I watch birds so often, they are in my mind; and, lately, they have been landing on my sketchpad.  Here are a few of my attempts to create a caricature or two of the cockatoos that I have photographed in my backyard.

I try to imagine how I would draw these birds on a whiteboard in a classroom.....and how I might make them look like the characters that they are.  The real, live, cockies are sooooo silly-acting, sometimes.  I'm still trying to get their attitude to come out of my pencil or pen.  The next two sketchpad pages show drawings I did without looking at a picture of a cockatoo.....the way I would want to be able to draw them with a marker on a whiteboard.

And when they are just being beautiful birds, it's hard to get that on paper.  I can see where I went wrong, as I reflect while looking at pictures of my drawings.....but I'm okay with the process.....I'm usually just trying to draw a picture that someone could recognize as a cockatoo.  

The pictures above were drawn before I wanted to worry about bird feet.  I spent a bit of focused feet-observation time and took a few pictures of cockatoo feet and then decided to try adding bird bodies and feet to my sketches.

And, just because I wanted to have a go.....I drew a raven, not too long ago. 

Oh, and here's a drawing of a cat I saw in Daylesford.  

My drawing doesn't show the cat's eyes.  They were two different colors!  So here are two pictures, to tell the tale of the cat with different eyes.

It's really helpful to observe and photograph the critters that I want to draw.  It seems easier than it used to be to draw a likeness.  I used to look at pictures in teachers' manuals or colorful calendars to get ideas for drawing pictures on whiteboards during lessons.  

I don't know if I will ever be drawing on whiteboards for students again, but at least I am having fun with drawing for myself and enjoying the sharing here on my blog.