Chubby Bird Drawing Tutorial for Beginners
This chubby bird drawing is fun and easy to draw. It’s great for beginners and makes cute artist trading cards (ATCs). Creating art is a skill that anyone can learn. The more you practice at it, the better you will get.
It’s important to have fun with your art journey and to try new things. The more fun you have the more you’ll want to do it. And these chubby birds are a lot of fun!
So let’s grab our supplies and have some fun with this chubby bird drawing.
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Art Supplies
- Thin black marker
- Paper or cardstock
- Markers
- Pencil
- Click Eraser, Pink Pearl Eraser
- White Gelly Roll pen
About Birds in Art
Birds have been featured in art for thousands of years, symbolizing everything from divinity and power to freedom and beauty. In ancient times, they appeared in cave paintings, Egyptian tombs (like the falcon for Horus), and Greek pottery (e.g., the eagle of Zeus).
During the medieval and Renaissance periods, birds carried rich symbolic meanings—doves for peace and the Holy Spirit, peacocks for immortality—and were often woven into religious art and illuminated manuscripts. Renaissance artists also began studying birds with a more scientific eye, leading to greater realism.
By the 17th to 19th centuries, birds became central subjects in scientific illustration, most famously in the works of John James Audubon. In Asia, birds appeared in elegant ink paintings as symbols of harmony and seasonal change.
In the 20th century and beyond, modern and contemporary artists have reimagined birds in abstract, surreal, and metaphorical ways—representing migration, identity, and transformation. Across cultures and centuries, birds remain a powerful and versatile subject in art.
Chubby Birds Sketch Practice
Doing a quick practice sketch session is a good way to warm up and get familiar with what you’re drawing. Here’s how to do it.
- Get some paper and something to sketch with (pencil, pen, marker, etc.)
- Pull up some reference photos of chubby birds
- Set a timer for three or five minutes
Then simply sketch out as many chubby birds as you can before the timer goes off.
You could also sketch until you fill your paper up. Either way is fine, just keep your lines loose and quick. And don’t pay too much attention to the small details. Just get some rough drawings on paper.
How to Make a Chubby Bird Drawing
When drawing anything, it’s easier to begin with some simple shapes. So that’s how we’ll begin this drawing. It will give you a foundation to work from. And help you see what your drawing will look like before spending a lot of time on it.
I’m drawing on an artist trading card (ATC) and I like to fill the card up with my drawing. Starting this way helps me do that.
Step 1: Basic Shapes
Begin by drawing a circle for the body. Then divide that circle with two curved lines going down the center and through the middle. Make sure the size and position is what you want for your finished drawing.
One of the benefits to starting with some simple shapes is that you can make changes before you invest too much time on your chubby bird drawing.
Step 2: Rough Sketch
Now start adding in your wings, eyes, and beak.There are a lot of different ways you can draw each element of your bird. You can change the way your finished drawing looks by changing these elements.
Use the guidelines you drew on your circle to help with the placement of the eyes and beak.
Finish by drawing the legs and feet.
Step 3: Add Details
Finish your sketch by adding some texture to the body and some feathers for the wing. You can use more or less details depending on the style you want your drawing to have.
You can also add in some additional images for the background.
Chubby Bird Drawing Outline
After you have your sketch completed, and you’re happy with how it looks, you can add an outline with a black pen or marker. I’m going to be using markers for my finished drawing so I’m adding my outline with a black pen.
To make you outline, simply trace over all the pencil lines that you want to keep. You can make your lines thick, thin, or a variation of line weights.
Using a brush pen is a great way to get some nice variation in your lines.
After your outline is finished you can use a block eraser to remove the remaining pencil lines and clean your drawing up.
How to Draw a Chubby Bird with Markers
When your outline is finished and your drawing is cleaned up you can add some color. I like using alcohol based markers for my drawings.
Choose two or three markers for each color and start with the lightest color first. For example, with the body of my bird drawing I used two blue markers. One that is lighter and one that is darker.
I began by filling in the body with the lighter blue. Then adding some shadows with the darker blue. Next I used the lighter blue to blend the two markers together and soften the edges.
You can do the same thing for the beak and other areas of your chubby bird drawing.
A white Gelly Roll pen can be used to add highlights.
Final Thoughts and Next Steps
Now that you’ve finished your chubby bird drawing, what’s next? If you want to get good at anything you need to practice. Art and drawing are just skills that can be learned. The more you practice the better you will get.
This doesn’t mean you have to spend hours everyday working on your drawings. Try spending five minutes a day for a couple of months and see how much you improve. If you have more time, that’s great. The more you can practice the quicker you’ll improve.
I love doing weekly drawing challenges to help me focus on what to work on.
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