Drawing Birds With Colored Pencils || Kaaren Poole

Let’s get one thing clear before we start: this is an American book. You need to know that or you’ll be in for a shock the moment you look up “Robin”. There’s a UK-originated book coming later this year, but that’ll be on acrylics and anyway, this is so good that I think its transatlantic coverage is something you should try to ignore.

The book consist of a series of demonstrations which have a good amount of step-by-step instruction, but a limited number of individual illustrations. This makes it something for the more advanced worker, but frankly, this is a subject you probably wouldn’t want to tackle as a beginner anyway. Each demonstration covers a different species and starts with the colours you’re going to need. Kaaren tends to work using her colours straight, with only a small amount of blending, so it may be more pencils than you’re used to. She then proceeds in a series of three layers and explains the stages that go into each. You get an illustration for each layer but, as I said, not each stage.

Coloured pencils can produce wonderfully fine detail and are perfect for feathers, where a little blending gives you the softness of colour interaction. Achieving this is something Kaaren covers comprehensively.

This is a gorgeous book. The basic principles of mark-making, colour and structure can be applied to any bird, but you are going to have to be prepared to make that jump from what you see on the page to what you see on the branch. It’s worth the effort, though.

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