Hummingbird Sketch From Life

My little friends are starting to leave me now. I didn't even have to refill the feeders today. I spent some time this afternoon on the screened porch just savoring their presence.

Zoom Zoom!

Faster than the speeding bullet . . . The hummingbirds sure look like they are having fun. My flocks of hummingbirds have gone into training and are plumping up for their upcoming trip South.

Howdy Mam

Here's another cowboy sketch for today's drawing.

Little Hummingbird Sketch

Here's today's sketch in my little pocket sketchbook. It's hard for me to draw that small without running the image off the paper. The size seems to lend itself to drawing hummingbirds though!

Fall Just Around The Corner

Here's a blind contour drawing I did of a scarecrow decoration I own.

Happy Hummingbird

A friend and photographer, Carolyn McKendry came by to take photos of the hummingbirds yesterday. Today she sent me a slideshow of some of her shots. This one is my favorite and was sketched quickly in my little pocket sketchbook from one of her photos. She really captured the spirit of this little girl who looks like she is smiling!

Resting Hummingbird

A little sketch in my little book of one of my little friends.

Horse Drawing

Today I did the background wash on the horse portrait I did a few weeks ago. Working in sections when using watercolor is sometimes essential and with me, it's a common practice.

Maple Leaf Drawing

A Cowboy From Down Under

Advice From Leonardo da Vinci

Advice From Leonardo da Vinci

"You should often amuse yourself when you are out for recreation, in watching and taking note of the attitudes and actions of people as they talk and dispute, or laugh or come to blows with one another... noting these down with rapid strokes, in a little pocket-book which you ought to always carry with you." ~ Leonardo da Vinci

I've taken to carrying my little pocket sketch pad with me when I go out. I drew this diagram while riding in the car today. I am currently re-reading a book from college, "The Natural Way To Draw". It's a wonderful book that I highly recommend to serious students of drawing. Nicolaides' formula for the human figure is notated here.

Cat Sketch From Life

A little sketch in my pocket sketch book.

Gnome Drawing

Here is a blind contour drawing of a handmade gnome doll I have.

Bear Totem Gesture

My Hummingbirds

Another sketch from my yard.

Dried Corn Cob Sketches

Here are drawings from this week's corn cob challenge photo. I think my friend did a darn good job with a less than easy subject. Way to go Bobbie!

This is the last challenge of the season, but if anyone wants to do any of the challenges on this site and send me your drawings, I'll post them at the end of the summer.

Little Hummingbird

I did my first sketch in my little 3.5 x 5" travel pad today. You gotta be quick, 'cause those little cuties don't stay still long!

Blind Contour Bird - Another Exercise Drawing

Blind Contour Scarecrow

My friend, Bobbie Zurbach, came for lunch today. She brought her sketchbook and more than two dozen drawings that she has done from my DrawingEveryday Blog. I was very impressed! They are really good.

She said she could not do Blind Contour so we spent a good part of the afternoon doing just that. She really enjoyed it. I told her to pick her favorite one and I'm posting it here tonight. It's of a handmade fall scarecrow decoration I have. I took snapshots and will be posting some more of her drawings along with some of the other submissions I have received at the end of this season. Sometimes I feel like Gusteau from "Ratatouille" and instead of saying "Anyone can cook", I say, "Anyone can draw".

Maple Leaf Sketch

We have been having a very dry summer here and the leaves are already falling from the trees. They are all brown and shriveled. Here is a 2 minute gesture sketch of a Maple leaf I found on the ground. The whole drawing was done holding my pencil in "wand position".

Mountain Top Pine Trees

Here's my interpretation of my last challenge photo. I can't believe we only have three weeks left of SketchingEveryday 2010. Between sketching, hosing horses, watering outside plants and filling hummingbird feeders, the summer has really flown by. Since there has not been much interest, this will be my last sketching challenge photo. I hope someone will give it a try.


A high resolution photo of this is available for license through iStockPhoto.

Simple Swan Sketch

Scrapbooking Scissors Gesture Sketch

Scarlet Macaw in Colored Pencil

Rose Sketch

This quick sketch was done holding my pencil like a wand. If you haven't tried using a pencil this way yet, why not give it a try. You might be surprised with the results.

Cardinal Sketch

"Do not fail, as you go on, to draw something every day, for no matter how little it is, it will be well worth while, and it will do you a world of good." ~ Cennino Cennini

Chipmunk Sketch

"The very act of drawing an object, however badly, swiftly takes the drawer from a woolly sense of what the object looks like to a precise awareness of its component parts and particularities." ~ Alain de Botton

Bear Sketch

I used colored pencil instead of watercolor on today's drawing for a change of pace.

Draw A Feather

I taped a feather to my paper and did this quick sketch this morning.

Stuck In Left Brain Mode

ACCORDING TO BETTY EDWARDS, AUTHOR OF DRAWING ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE BRAIN, "The right brain perceives and processes visual information, in the way one needs to see in order to draw, and the left brain perceives in ways that seem to interfere with drawing. An individual's ability to draw is... the ability to shift to a different-from-ordinary way of processing visual information - to shift from verbal, analytic processing to spatial, global processing." ~ Betty Edwards


I had a hard time shifting into Right Brain Mode when drawing this complicated sketching challenge. Maybe it's because it's my horse and it was hard for me to see the image as just shapes. Anyway, after a couple of attempts I was unhappy with, I put a grid on my photo and did the same one on my paper. I put more lines where the image was more complicated. This allowed me to break the subject up into bite sized pieces. Finally I felt my Right Brain Shift and began seeing only the shapes in the box, instead of thinking about what it was I was drawing.


Here is next week's sketching challenge photo. I hope it's a fairly easy one.

Panda Bear Drawing

Here's yesterday's sketch with a watercolor wash applied.

Happy Panda Bear

This is an easy line drawing done from a little figurine I have. Why not copy my sketch yourself? Just look at the simple shapes. If you are having trouble with this or other photos, draw a grid on the reference and a matching one on your drawing paper.

Cradle Basket Drawing With Watercolor Wash

Cradle Basket

This is a quick five minute sketch of an antique Native American Cradle Basket Toy.

Brown Pelican Drawing With Wash Applied

I have been disturbed by the oil covered Brown Pelicans and thousands of other animals shown in the media that have been impacted by the Gulf oil disaster.

Pelican Sketch

Another Hummingbird Sketch Comes To Life

Here's yesterday's pencil sketch with the wash applied.

Also for this week's sketching challenge, here's a photo of my thirty year old 1/2 TB Paint, Rembrandt (aka: Rudy). Here he is, all braided up and ready for a show. I know we've got some horse lovers out there! I hope some of you will try drawing my sweet boy.


"I have learned that what I have not drawn, I have never really seen." ~ Frederick Franck

Hot Hummingbirds

It's a scorcher today and the hummingbirds have been drinking up the nectar really fast! Seems like every time I look, there's another empty feeder. Here's a quick sketch of a little hummer resting in the shade of a Butterfly Bush.

What Does Iowa & NJ Have In Common?

Iowa and New Jersey share the same state bird! Yes, I was surprised to find out that both of these state's bird is the Eastern or American Goldfinch. They are such sweet little things. We have them here year round and pay a dear price for Thistle Seed! I really enjoy watching them in my Thistle patch. They look like they are having a ball when the seeds are ripe in late summer / early fall.

Wash Applied To Sunday's Gesture Sketch

Little Egret

Although some would say that adding a wash to a drawing is painting and not sketching, I would disagree. When I apply my washes, they are usually done in a very loose sketchy kind of a way. With these sketches on regular drawing paper, I'm less likely to tense up and more likely to stay looser than I would on quality watercolor paper.

Hummingbird Happiness and Lens Of The Day!

Hummer Hound, Nancy Hines, came out with her sister, Nora, this morning to see all the hummers. We spent a couple of hours together chatting and just watching the hummingbirds. We were in Hummer Heaven. Then later today, my Six Steps To Sensational Sketches (the one with the hummingbird tutorial) got "Lens Of The Day" on Squidoo! So since it's been a HummDinger of a day, I decided to add a wash to the two minute gesture sketch I posted here on Monday. See what a big difference a little wash can make!

Snowy Owl

This sketch of a Snowy Owl was done from more than a half a dozen reference images. When I draw or paint something like this, I make sure I am not copying the work of someone else. Even if I have permission from the image owner to use their photo, I always strive to create an interpretation that is my own.

Hummingbird Gesture Drawing

Here's another gesture sketch. These 2 min. quickies are getting easier for me to whip out. Like I always say; "The key to mastery is through repetition!" ~ Notice how I've left my preliminary underlying scribbles for you to see here, so you can better understand how I started out with this real fast drawing.

We've got flocks of hummingbirds here this year. See my recent web log post on rating hummingbird feeders here.

Little White Egret

A Two Minute Pineapple Gesture Sketch

I've been doing a lot of quick gesture drawings lately. I hope to convince you that drawing doesn't have to take a big chunk of time out of your day. If you were to practice quick gestures for five minutes everyday, I believe you'd see improvement in no time.

Quick Thistle Sketch 'En Plein Air'

I drew "En Plein Air" today. Yikes it was hot! I wanted to draw longer, but just couldn't take the heat. This drawing is of a couple of stalks of Thistle in a little patch I have growing near my studio.

Tip: It was done very quickly and almost entirely holding my pencil like a wand.