Birds (update- file) (Patreon)

Update finished the birds! The file is for clip paint studio but I can also make one for photoshop if requested. cps is a ton of fun to draw with, i'm loving the brush making feature. Also has a layer for how to draw birds so you can see it in crispy crispy detail 

A lil thing on how I draw birds and particularly their weird little carrot feet (mostly applies to passerines. There's a huge variety of birds out there with super weird feet. Y'all seen those owl leg videos. A penguin is always crouching. It has knees) 

A finch missing it's back claw can't perch or like. stand. Also as an interesting little side thing, a finches beak can grow and has to be whittled down through pecking things. If it goes untreated the bird can't eat and eventually starves. I give my birds cuttlefish bone to help with that. Great source of extra protein too. They also love spinach and thistle, there's some puha growing in my garden that they lose their minds over whenever I give them some. They sweet lil birds 

I like to start by drawing the beak/face. Drawing the head makes it easier to get a feel for the rest of the bodies proportions 

Birds are easy (imo) to make expressive. Eyes and beak curve are the quickest ways to express an emotion. Curve the middle of the beak like a mouth. Eye shape, positioning and shininess can completely change the mood of a bird. Birds aren't the mosssst naturally expressive visually I like to add in recognisable expressive things from other animals. Pose (e.g a playful puppy like pose like the top middle, round and gentle like top left) can add a lot 

You can tell a lot about a bird and how relaxed it is by how settled it is. Finches turn into mochi when they're relaxed (can relate)