I love birds. I feed them all year long just to have them near yet I have drawn very few. One reason I haven’t drawn very many is that birds are very hard to draw without a photo reference. It’s tricky to take a photo of a bird … and I don’t like to use reference photos that aren’t my own!
In my efforts to get some good photos of birds, I’ve been trying different things and this morning I tried something that seems to have promise. I sang to them. They were singing so loudly and happily that I was inspired to join them. I just opened my mouth and sang a single note a few times. In just a little while, a goldfinch flitted over to a near by bush for just an instant. Then a blue jay flew over me and perched on a tree limb so he could get a better look. The catbirds who had been singing to me all morning from deep within flowering bushes, came out to see me.
I’m not sure if this story has a moral or not. If it did I suppose it would be something about reaching down into yourself to find what you need … or maybe about speaking your intentions right out loud. What I do know is that I have a few more reference photos of birds to draw from and I got them by collaborating with my intended subjects rather than just observing them. I think that’s worthy to note.
Carol Rosinski
