3.5 Years – Drawing from Reference – Birds

Lou had a bad dream about a cardinal. It was pecking on her window and kept coming back. She wanted to draw the cardinal. She sat down with a crayon and thought about it. She asked me how to draw one. I said we should look it up. Our internet was down, so we broke out the books. We couldn’t find a cardinal, but we found something close.

I asked her what was the biggest shape on the bird. The body. What shape was it? Oval. So we started with that. Then I asked her what else does she see on the bird. Legs. Then a head. I said it was a smaller oval than the body. She gave it a shot. She said it was too small. She flipped the page to draw another bird.

This one she started forgetting about the reference and went back to comfortable legs, arms, and two eyes. Before she drew the eyes I showed her how we only see one eye. She decided to draw two anyways. Then she wanted me to draw with her:

I drew the body and then asked her what was different. She looked back and forth from the picture to the drawing. This was what I loved most. The comparing. She said legs. I drew legs. Then feet. Then a part of the tail.

Then I said it was her turn to draw the baby.

…