Sunday, 30 November 2014

Bird Study Drawings

As a teenager studying Biology and Art, I made some anatomical studies of some dead birds, each measured onto the page exactly life size. Most are road casualties. One bird of prey had collided with a window and a pheasant head came from a shoot. A school teacher sourced both of those birds for me. I made 11 studies in all. Other were planned but never happened. Each took one or two days of solid commitment.

I got the idea from seeing a magazine article about William T. Cooper by David Attenborough in the BBC Wildlife Magazine of January 1993. In the article photographs, Cooper is using his own bird studies to aid his acrylic paintings. Lots of other bird artists do this too, sometimes in their sketchbook, sometimes like this, as seperate studies.


 Male House Sparrow Passer domesticus

 Female House Sparrow Passer domesticus

 Collard Dove Streptopelia decaocto

 Wood Pigeon Columba palumbus

 Willow Warbler Phylloscopus trochilusr

 European Robin Erithacus rubecula

 Feral Mallard Duck (head) Anas platyrhynchos

  Feral Mallard Duck (wings and feet) Anas platyrhynchos

 Ring-necked Pheasant (head) Phasianus colchicus

 Juvenile Eurasian Sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus

 Herring Gull Larus argentatus


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