ArtistsNetwork.com 31- DRAW WITH THE HELP
OF A VIDEO OR WEBCAM.
Motion studies from recorded or live-streamed
birds are great for those times when you can’t
be out in nature. And, of course, you can hit
“pause” whenever you like. Webcams stream-
ing from inaccessible places such as eagle nests
and remote puffin colonies are entertaining
resources. Here are two of my favorites,
featuring puffins and Panama fruit feeders:
bit.ly/audubonpuffincam and bit.ly/canopy
lodgecam. Happy bird drawing!
Oklahoma-based DEBBY COTTER
KASPARI (drawingthemotmot.com)
is an artist, writer and naturalist
who sketches and paints birds from
life. Her field drawings have been
shown in the Museum of American
Bird Art, and her paintings have
been exhibited in the Leigh Yawkey
Woodson Art Museum’s “Birds in
Art” show. A signature member of
the Society of Animal Artists, and an
award-winning illustrator of books
and magazines, Kaspari created
artwork in the Middle East with the conservation organization,
Artists for Nature, and has collaborated with biologists in
Spain, Australia, South America and Denmark.
FURTHER READING
The Laws Guide to Drawing Birds by John Muir Laws
(Heyday Books, 2015)Drawing and Painting Birds by Tim Wootton
(Crowood Press, 2011)Drawing the Motmot blog by Debby Cotter Kaspari
(drawingthemotmot.com)I also draw from videos, connecting my iPhone to a fi eldscope in a technique called
digiscoping. You can get multiple poses from a single video and watch a bird move
naturally, something still images can’t convey. I took about two minutes’ worth of slow-
motion video of yellow-tailed orioles sparring in a Panama marsh, making a number
of sketches from which to paint Yellow-tailed Orioles (above; oil on canvas, 20x16)
in the studio.