Jardin des Tuileries, a green haven of calm, congeniality and fountains with black-headed gulls (in winter plumage) and tilt-back chairs to collapse into when the head is full and the feet hurt. Antman and I shared a baguette and long blank stares at dancing water before setting off into the evening for more magnificence and a cozy dinner somewhere in Paris. Watercolor over pencil, 5″ x 8″ Moleskine sketchbook.Meanwhile, at the Jardin des Plantes further down the Seine the rose-ringed parakeets (introduced) chattered from the yews. Wood pigeons picked at the tidy lawns, which are off-limits to human feet. The Jardin guards gave us a Warm French Scolding when Antman posed by the statue of Lamarck for me to take a picture. Which was not as pleasing as it sounds, trust me. Watercolor over pencil, 5″ x 8″ Moleskine sketchbook.
Hi gaiamethod- it’s mostly just a lot of practice, with study behind it. So, it helps to learn anatomy, including bird anatomy if that’s what you’d like to do (check out the book,The Laws Guide to Drawing Birds). Study perspective drawing if you want to tackle architecture and street scenes. Your confidence will build with time and practice, but always be on the lookout for ways to improve your understanding of what you’re seeing. Thanks for your note!
I love your drawings, and it is a real pleasure for me to follow your blog regularly. As a Frenchman, I am sorry for the behavior of the guards in the Jardin des Plantes. I hope their unwelcoming and disappointing attitude has not tarnished in your mind the memory of this place which I always found delightful since I was a kid!
Dear Will- I’m touched by your thoughtful note. We loved Paris and were properly seduced by her charms. No need to worry over our encounter with the Jardin guards- we had trod upon Jardin’s beautiful grass, and they did their job with panache. We deserved to be busted. But we found another great statue in the garden to pose with- one of Antman’s heroes, the evolutionary theorist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829). And all was well.
Drawing The Motmot 
How do you gain the confidence to just draw and actually have it look like what you intend it to look like? Is that practice? I love your pigeons.
Hi gaiamethod- it’s mostly just a lot of practice, with study behind it. So, it helps to learn anatomy, including bird anatomy if that’s what you’d like to do (check out the book,The Laws Guide to Drawing Birds). Study perspective drawing if you want to tackle architecture and street scenes. Your confidence will build with time and practice, but always be on the lookout for ways to improve your understanding of what you’re seeing. Thanks for your note!
I love your drawings, and it is a real pleasure for me to follow your blog regularly. As a Frenchman, I am sorry for the behavior of the guards in the Jardin des Plantes. I hope their unwelcoming and disappointing attitude has not tarnished in your mind the memory of this place which I always found delightful since I was a kid!
Dear Will- I’m touched by your thoughtful note. We loved Paris and were properly seduced by her charms. No need to worry over our encounter with the Jardin guards- we had trod upon Jardin’s beautiful grass, and they did their job with panache. We deserved to be busted. But we found another great statue in the garden to pose with- one of Antman’s heroes, the evolutionary theorist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829). And all was well.