How to Draw an Ostrich

Urratsez urrats

1. Urratsa 1

   Draw the body as one oval and stop there.

   Nearly every bird is one egg-shaped mass with everything else attached to it. Draw the egg in one motion and let its tilt say what the bird is doing.

   Kontuz! Building the body from several small arcs.

   Egiaztatu The body should be one smooth closed shape.

2. Urratsa 2

   Place the head - much smaller than you think.

   Bird heads are smaller relative to the body than beginners expect - usually about a quarter of the body length. Measure against the egg before you commit.

   Kontuz! An oversized head, which turns the bird into a cartoon.

   Egiaztatu About four head-widths should fit along the body.

3. Urratsa 3

   Run two lines from the head down into the body.

   Even a short-necked bird has a neck: two curves joining head to body, front and back. Without them the head floats and the bird reads as a snowman.

   Kontuz! Leaving the head disconnected from the body.

   Egiaztatu Both neck curves should touch head and body.

4. Urratsa 4

   Draw the beak - it comes off the front of the skull.

   The beak grows out of the skull rather than sitting on its surface, and its angle continues the line of the head. Shape and size are the strongest species cues on the whole bird.

   Kontuz! Sticking the beak flat onto the front of the circle.

   Egiaztatu The top edge of the beak should line up with the skull.

5. Urratsa 5

   Put the eye in, high and forward.

   A bird's eye sits high and close to the beak. Small, dark, with one highlight - and its position matters far more than its rendering.

   Kontuz! Placing the eye centrally, which deadens the whole face.

   Egiaztatu The eye should be nearer the beak than the back of the head.

6. Urratsa 6

   Add the folded wing, overlapping the body.

   The folded wing lies ON the body, crossing its outline. That overlap is what attaches it - a wing drawn inside the body outline reads as a pattern, not a limb.

   Kontuz! Drawing the wing floating inside the silhouette.

   Egiaztatu The wing should cross the body outline somewhere.

7. Urratsa 7

   Sketch the feather groups on the wing.

   Feathers come in groups, and the groups are what you draw - two or three curved rows, not individual feathers. The eye supplies the rest reliably.

   Kontuz! Drawing every feather, which turns the wing into a fence.

   Egiaztatu You should count feather GROUPS, not feathers.

8. Urratsa 8

   Place the legs under the body, toward the rear.

   Legs attach much further back than they appear to, because the visible leg is really the bird's foot and ankle. Get the attachment point right and the balance follows.

   Kontuz! Legs planted centrally, which makes the bird tip forward.

   Egiaztatu The legs should attach behind the middle of the egg.

9. Urratsa 9

   Draw the tail.

   The tail continues the body's line rather than being stuck on the end. Draw it as one shape - separate feathers come last if at all.

   Kontuz! A tail at war with the angle of the body.

   Egiaztatu The tail's top edge should flow from the back line.

10. Urratsa 10

    Shape the breast.

    The breast is the fullest curve on the bird and it carries the pose. Round it generously - a flat chest makes any bird look deflated.

    Kontuz! A flat front, which loses the bird's volume.

    Egiaztatu The chest should be the roundest curve on the drawing.

11. Urratsa 11

    Draw the plumage pattern.

    Markings follow the body's form - they curve as the body curves. Flat pattern drawn over a round form cancels all the volume you just built.

    Kontuz! Drawing the pattern flat, ignoring the curve underneath.

    Egiaztatu Any stripe or patch should bend with the body.

12. Urratsa 12

    Texture the breast lightly, curving with the body.

    Three or four short V-marks down the breast, each curving with the chest rather than sitting flat, and the whole bird reads as feathered. They also confirm the body's roundness - marks on a form must bend with it, which is the same rule as every stripe and patch on the site.

    Kontuz! Covering the breast evenly, which turns the bird into a pinecone.

    Egiaztatu The marks should bend the same way as the chest outline.

13. Urratsa 13

    Add ground and shadow so it stops floating.

    One line under the feet and one flattened shadow arc beneath the body, darkest between the legs. A bird with no ground floats in white space no matter how well it is built - and the shadow also confirms where the legs actually are, which birds hide well.

    Kontuz! Skipping it and leaving the bird hovering.

    Egiaztatu The shadow should sit directly below the body's widest point.

14. Urratsa 14

    Press harder on the final lines and erase the blocking-in.

    Weight the silhouette and the beak, keep the feather marks light, erase the construction. The contrast in line weight is what separates finished from traced.

    Kontuz! Uniform line weight over the whole bird.

    Egiaztatu Silhouette darker than interior - check by squinting.