Drawing Like Audubon: Learning to See

Today's guest post is from artist, author, and all-around lovely person Kate Birch. Visit her blog here and look for some of her own original artwork! Kate took a page out of this week's book, Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt, and gives us this great activity so we can learn to draw from Audubon's work just like Doug did. Take it away, Kate!

John James Audubon was known for his amazingly realist illustrations of birds compiled in his best-known work, The Birds of America. One of the things that made Audubon’s work so interesting is that the birds actually looked like they were drawn straight out of nature. Audubon did his best to make his birds look as life-like as possible. Because it would be impossible to draw a live bird in its natural setting, Audubon staged dead birds with wires in elaborate sets that he spent days preparing. Audubon knew that to create the most life-like bird on the page he would have to observe the most life-like bird in real life.

As artists, we have to learn to see the world differently. Many people will look at a bird, or a tree, or a plant without truly seeing it. Our brains are used to making generalizations about objects—a bird has wings and a beak, a tree has a trunk and branches—but this doesn’t mean that all birds have the same shaped wings or beaks. Artists have to learn to see each little detail in the world. Artists can’t make assumptions.

One of the best ways to really start seeing the world without letting our brains generalize is to draw upside down. Today, you’ll learn how to take one of Audubon’s birds and learn to see it a new way.

 

Step One: Print off your favorite of Audubon’s birds. I’ll be using part of the Blue Yellow-Backed Wood Warbler.

If you’d like to make it a little bit easier on yourself you can use this black and white version of the same illustration:

 

Step Two: After your picture is printed off. Set it in front of you upside down on the table. Now it will look like this when you begin to draw:

 

 

Step Three: As you draw, try to concentrate on the lines and shapes that you see. Instead of thinking about drawing the bird’s eye, or beak, or wing, simply think about the lines themselves. Are they short or long? Are they close together? Do they curve?

Step Four: After you are done, you can flip your drawing around. Did you draw the bird differently than if you had been looking at it right side up?

 

Thanks so much, Kate! Can't wait to try this with my kids!

Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt

Book Summary: As a fourteen-year-old who just moved to a new town, with no friends and a louse for an older brother, Doug Swieteck has all the stats stacked against him. So begins a coming-of-age masterwork full of equal parts comedy and tragedy from Newbery Honor winner Gary D. Schmidt. As Doug struggles to be more than the “skinny thug” that his teachers and the police think him to be, he finds an unlikely ally in Lil Spicer—a fiery young lady who “smelled like daisies would smell if they were growing in a big field under a clearing sky after a rain.” In Lil, Doug finds the strength to endure an abusive father, the suspicions of a whole town, and the return of his oldest brother, forever scarred, from Vietnam. Together, they find a safe haven in the local library, inspiration in learning about the plates of John James Audubon’s birds, and a hilarious adventure on a Broadway stage. In this stunning novel, Schmidt expertly weaves multiple themes of loss and recovery in a story teeming with distinctive, unusual characters and invaluable lessons about love, creativity, and survival.

My Two Cents: Memorable characters, beautiful writing, amazing book. Here's the bottom line: This is probably my favorite middle grade book. Yes, #1 favorite of all time. All I have to do is see that bag-face cover and I want to laugh and cry and read the whole thing again.

Grade Level: 4-8

Additional Resources:

• Visit Gary D. Schmidt's website.
• View more images of Audubon's Birds of America from the National Gallery of Art.
• One of Doug's talents is memorizing baseball trivia. Test your own baseball trivia knowledge, learn new facts, and solve baseball sudoku and crossword puzzles here.
• Learn how to play horseshoes like Doug does.
• Doug's brother Lucas comes back from Vietnam. Find photos, video, and facts about what Vietnam is like today at the National Geographic Kids website.
• The novel Jane Eyre is important in this book. Read a quick summary of Jane Eyre for kids here.
• Doug isn't a big fan of poetry in general and Shelley in particular, but he seems to like birds. Do you think he'd like this poem Shelley wrote about a bird?

More to Read:

• A companion novel to Okay for Now: Schmidt's The Wednesday Wars (Or maybe read this one first and see how your perception of Doug changes...)
• Another novel that features John James Audubon (this time as a character): A Nest for Celeste by Henry Cole
• Another book about a young boy in about the same era (with a very similar cover): Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos