Lesson 5: Applying Construction to Animals

Birds are a great place to start, especially since they are somewhat simpler and easier to approach, with their ribcage and pelvis effectively being compressed into a single mass.

This demo recording has no accompanying audio commentary.

Here's the reference image we'll be using for this demonstration.

As I mentioned above, we've simplified the torso into a single mass, rather than splitting them into ribcage and pelvis. Keep in mind that the masses you see here are not flat, 2D shapes. They are 3D forms. Of course, the only difference is in how you choose to perceive them, as the outline of a 3D ball will still be drawn as an ellipse. If you're not entirely comfortable with this, you may choose to add one or two contour curves to help reinforce the illusion, but don't go overboard and make sure you're not sloppy in their execution.

This is a small step, but I wanted to focus on how the base of the beak there wraps around the ball of the cranium where it connects to the head. Being mindful of this curvature is extremely important, and if you don't properly perceive the illusion of that cranial mass being a 3D ball, you will not draw this curve correctly. Always remind yourself that we are dealing in three dimensional forms. Additionally, you can see that I've added an eye socket, and I've roughly gauged how long my beak is going to be.

I've fleshed out the rest of the beak, adding a couple of little contour curves to help maintain the illusion of form. Additionally, I'm using a similar technique with the neck as I introduced in lesson 3, when dealing with stems and branches. That is, placing a couple of ellipses along the length in order to give myself some targets to hit when I construct the edges of the tube. I've also distinctly defined how that neck-tube is going to connect to the torso. Think of it as a headphone jack. You're setting out the hole, so you know exactly where to plug the neck in.

So I've played connect-the-dots with the neck ellipses and constructed that tube. I've also added the remaining major forms - that is, the thigh masses, the legs and the feet.

Admittedly I put the legs way too close together, but these mistakes do happen, and when they do, just keep pushing forwards. You'll notice that the thighs are not visible at all in the drawing. That is, they're there, but you can't make them out and differentiate them from the rest of the torso, because of how the feathers all blend everything together.

It is entirely necessary however for us to understand what is going on underneath the skin - having eaten many a bird in my long life, I am all too well aware of their juicy, succulent thigh-meats, so how could I refrain from including them? Draw on all of your experiences, and feed your curiosity. Study and observe everything around you, as this information will prove to be very valuable in pushing the believability of your drawings in the most unexpected of ways.

Looking closely at the reference image, you'll see that there's a few other forms that we were missing - the wing's a big one, but there's also the transition between the back of the neck and the torso, something easily missed. With the wing, I felt it especially important to separate that form from the rest of the torso, so I leveraged a couple of contour curves here to help puff it out.