How to Draw a Bird

Many artists are not only good artists, but insightful teachers. In artistic textbooks of bird drawings and paintings, artists develop formats and procedures of depicting birds, detailing into each commonly seen posture and sometimes different species.

Title: Jieziyuan huaji 《芥子园画谱》
Description: Jieziyuan is an art textbook co-authored by multiple artists in the era of Kangxi (1662-1722), a classical publication represents the sophistication of the color woodblock printing technique in the early Qing dynasty. The word “huapu,” directly translated as the “painting note,” “painting excerption” or "painting book," refers to a systematic recording of art techniques with illustrations. Jieziyuan, as the most known and representative Chinese huapu, offers a series of detailed procedures of drawing landscape, still-life and animals. The section of birds illustrates the rendering of birds in steps and how to depict birds in different postures and various natural environments.; JHU Catalyst

Media: Jieziyuan huaji-Steps of drawing a bird; Jieziyuan huaji-Birds in motion

Title: Studies in the Art Anatomy of Animals: Being a Brief Analysis of the Visible Forms of the More Familiar Mammals and Birds by Ernest Thompson Seton
Description: The book is an advocation of animal anatomy by the 19th-century wildlife artist Ernest Thompson Seton. He puts forth the idea that artists should learn the anatomical knowledge of animals with an equal attention of studying human anatomy, to treat animal subjects as humans with the physical accuracy in the sphere of art. For Seton, the dissection is not equivalent but an inferior method to the study of anatomy, while the anatomy delivers a more vivid rendering of animals. Birds anatomy is one of the topics in the book. Seton gives a particular attention to the depiction of features.; JHU Catalyst

Media: Studies in the art anatomy of animals-Bird Anatomy; Studies in the art anatomy of animals-Geometry of Peacock's tail