Parrots are a fairly simple subject to draw.
Having a trained parrot on your shoulder like a pirate may not be realistic, but making a realistic drawing of one is possible for anyone. It only takes a few simple steps and a lot of hard work to create a decent parrot drawing. Unlike the real parrot, a drawing will last forever and can be put on display so everyone can admire your effort.
Instructions
Preparing to draw
1. Gather at least four sheets of multipurpose paper place them evenly on top of each other. This will give you some support so that your lines will be not be affected by any imperfections in the drawing surface you place your paper on.
2. Find a high-quality photo of a parrot. This is essential unless you can draw it from memory. Unless an artist is extremely gifted or has drawn a subject many times, drawing from memory rarely produces a realistically accurate drawing.
3. Place the photo beside your drawing paper. Study the parrot closely, and look for basic shapes in its construction. An easier way to do this is to lay a clear plastic sheet over the image and then take a marker and boldly draw over the image, finding basic shapes like circles and ovals that make up the parrot's construction.
4. Take your mechanical pencil and turn it on its side. Start drawing the basic shapes you saw on a practice sheet of paper. This will loosen up your drawing hand, and prepare you to draw the basic shapes for the parrot. After some practice, try drawing loose but lighter strokes, as the final basic form drawing needs to be easy to erase.
Drawing the Basic Forms
5. Using the broad strokes created from laying the pencil on its side, quickly draw a circle for the head shape of the parrot. Avoid details; get the basic structure down first. The circle should be drawn by locking your wrist and moving your entire forearm in circular motions. Don't be afraid to go over the circle several times. It is important to stay as loose as possible with the lines.
6. Use more broad strokes to create the body of the parrot. Observation of the parrot in the photo will reveal that its body can be represented by a long oval attached to the circular head. Use a similar stretched oval to create the wing, provided the wings are closed.
7. Closer observation will reveal that circular or oval forms can also be used to represent the parrot's beak, eyes, legs, and possibly the feet. The parrot's feathers, as a mass, may also be represented by circular shapes. Add everything into the drawing, placing them in the right locations based on the photo.
8. Closely study the photo and make a contour drawing around the basic form structure. Use the basic form structure as a guide to where to place your lines, but let the realistic contours of the parrot in the photo be the final reference in what you draw. The basic form structure is very useful to place things, but it can be distracting when you are trying to draw realistically. It may help to erase the basic from structure as you go.
9. Continue studying the photo and depict what you see there in your contour lines. If something is not perfectly straight or perfectly curved, do not try to make it so. Your aim is to get the realistic contours down in your drawing.
10. After creating a finished contour drawing of the parrot, add textures like feathers. Study the shapes in the photo once more and figure out what basic forms best represent them. You may also want to add light and shadow by turning the pencil on its side once more and shading. It is best to erase all the basic form construction lines before proceeding to this step.
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