The Laws Guide to Drawing Birds

John Muir Laws’s guide to drawing birds is itself winged, soaring between a devotion not only to art but also to the lives, forms, and postures of the birds themselves.

Here, artistic technique and the exquisite details of natural history intertwine, and drawing becomes the vehicle for seeing. As Laws writes, ＂To draw feathers, you must understand how feathers grow, overlap, and insert into the body. To create the body, you must have an understanding of the bird’s skeletal structure. To pose this skeleton, you must be able to perceive the energy, intention, and life of the bird.＂

This how-to guide will perfect the technique of serious artists but also, perhaps more importantly, it will provide guidance for those who insist they can’t draw. Leading the mind and hand through a series of detailed exercises, Laws delivers what he promises: that ＂drawing birds opens you to the beauty of the world.＂ An Audubon Book.

More journaling titles by John Muir Laws:

• The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling


• How to Teach Nature Journaling


• The Laws Sketchbook for Nature Journaling

John Muir Laws is a naturalist, educator, and artist with degrees in conservation and resource studies, wildlife biology, and scientific illustration. His books include The Laws Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada, The Laws Guide to Drawing Birds, The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling, and (with Emilie Lygren) How to Teach Nature Journaling, all published by Heyday. He is cofounder of the Wild Wonder Foundation, an organization encouraging nature connection through art and science. Visit his website at johnmuirlaws.com.

David Allen Sibley is an American naturalist. He is the author and illustrator of The Sibley Guide to Birds (and several other books about birds), as well as The Sibley Guide to Trees.