I tried to draw this robin with coloured pencils. I feel like I really struggled with a few things: creating depth in the the tail, back and sides, creating the same texture in the wood as in the reference photo, creating shading on the lower belly area, and creating snow. Could anyone share any pointers/advice on any of these areas to help me improve?
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Looks like a great start! My first observation is that for depth here, you need more contrast. Darkening shadow areas would help: for instance, look on the birds chest and underside of the tail, see how dark the colors are in the reference?
You’ll get there with more layering. It may even help to isolate an area to do a value match; place a small square ‘window’ made from another piece of paper over an area like the birds chest. Compare it to the same area of your work and it should help if having trouble disconnecting the values of various areas. Hope that helps, and great job so far!
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In creating snow, it may help to put in some of the background color to contrast. You could leave some of the white paper showing through as it appears between the wood post and the blue background. Aside from that, between the birds foot and the wood it looks like it needs some white to imply the snow. You could try to life what marks you’ve made there under the birds foot that connect the foot and the wood with a very small eraser, and then add some white pencil? That may be enough for snow without adding much background if you prefer to leave it off. Can’t wait to see your progress.
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These are gorgeous! Well done
Hello Jay,
I believe alongsidemom gave you great advice. I would give you the same advice.
It always comes down to value and contrast. On the website for members there is a course called Three Little Birds in colored pencils. I think this course would give some good advice with drawing birds.
You are really off to a great start. Try not to be to hard on yourself. It comes with practice and repetition. I look forward to seeing your next project and also if you make changes to see what you did here.
Teri (with 1r)
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That is really helpful advice, now that you have emphasised it I can see just how dark the chest area is! How would you suggest creating the darkest darks in a drawing without using the colour black itself? (Matt’s course mentioned that using black itself can make it a bit flat)
Also, how do you create the effect on the bird’s back where it is quite bright (it appears as if the sun is shining on it) compared to the underside of the tail?
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Thanks Teri, I have been looking at that exact course although it is classed as “Intermediate”. How do you know if you are good enough to do an intermediate course/class or stay on the beginner ones?
I’ve been going through the coloured pencil course and the 25 days to better drawings, but I did want to ask if you would recommend doing courses first or classes? On the courses I’ve done so far I’ve found that the lessons that draw a subject do not go into as much detail as maybe I need at this stage, so I was wondering if it would be better to do a specific class that is dedicated solely to drawing a particular reference? So I was just wondering if you recommend completing all the courses first before doing any classes, or how do you recommend approaching it?
To me it looks like brown would help the chest, maybe a blend of burnt umber/sepia to darken? Test on a scrap piece of paper.
I think that once you darken the shadows, you’ll find the areas that ought to be highlighted will pop, so try to leave the highlight areas alone until you get those shadows in and see how it looks. 
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Thanks, I actually didn’t get a burnt umber, just a raw umber. I think the darkest brown I have is probably walnut brown, I presume that would work as well along with the dark sepia. I’ll give it a go. Really appreciate the advice!
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Hello Jay,
I have the same issues with the courses. I find it much easier to do a class. He goes through them from beginning to end with almost every stroke..
There are some of his first classes in graphite/ I would suggest Boot camp. This will help with beginning techniques. There are a few more beginner ones. I will sometimes watch a more advanced course just to get the information in my mind. Also something I can imagine being able to do in the future. .Then go back a do a beginner course that is al little easier.
With colored pencils I do the same thing. Maybe start with landscape with colored He is using polychromo’s but any brand will work. Also there are some bird courses with just colored pencils as well as some with markers underneath. I did some with markers underpaintings but did not use the markers. i didn’t have them.
I hope this helps you.
Teri
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Yes that is helpful, thank you!
I am only an advanced beginner, but if this was my drawing, I would keep layering until burnishing isnthe last way to get color or shading on.
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