Doodle Bird Watercolor Drawings
Making watercolor doodle birds is so much fun, and unlocks your creative mind. They are so relaxing and easy to make. We’ll show you the steps to create your own.
And give you some ideas for adding some variety to your doodle bird creations. These doodle birds are something anyone can learn to draw, even if you have no previous experience with art.
Let’s get started by looking at what a doodle is.
What is a Doodle
A doodle is defined as a drawing that is done while a person is occupied by other things. They are simple drawings that are random, and most often, abstract.
They can be either representational, or non-representational.
Doodles can often be found in the margins of notebooks, on a scrap pad of paper, or on speaker notes from lectures.
Doodling can be done from life or from the imagination.
According to Professor Jackie Andrade, doodling can also improve your memory and ability to recall. Doodling engages neurological pathways that allows the person to process information.
Watercolor Doodles
Doodling with watercolors is a creative way to loosen up and draw something unexpected. To do a watercolor doodle, you begin with a random splotch of paint. Using a pen, you add a drawing on top of, and around, your watercolor splotch.
We taught this technique in our watercolor critters drawings, and in watercolor splotch faces.
The process is very similar as with the previous art lessons, but this time we are drawing birds. And with these birds we are going to add in some doodling as well.
Here is the list of art supplies that were used for this art lesson.
* Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links. This means I receive small commissions for purchases made through these links at no extra cost to you.
Art Supplies
How to Draw Watercolor Doodle Birds
The first thing you need to do, since these are doodles, is to create some sort of distraction. Turn on a movie, or some other way to allow yourself to be distracted from thinking about only what you are drawing.
This allows you to relax so you’re not putting pressure on yourself to come up with a masterpiece. When doing your doodle birds you want to enjoy the process, and not worry so much about the end results.
Next, grab your favorite paper and watercolor paints. These are both a personal preference, so use whatever you’re comfortable with.
Watercolor Doodle Birds
Begin by painting some random shapes on your paper using any color of paint that you want to use. When doing this, try to get a little variation in the values of your watercolor paints.
You want to have areas that are lighter, and some that are darker.
I’m doing my doodle bird drawings on artist trading cards (ATCs). If you’re not familiar with ATCs, they are miniature works of art that you trade to other artists for their artwork. It’s so much fun to participate in this type of mail art. I encourage you to give them a try if you’ve never traded your artwork.
When doing your watercolor doodle birds, it’s a good idea to do several different drawings. You can do this all on one piece of paper, or if you’re doing them on artist trading cards, you’ll end up with several different ATCs when you’re finished.
Allow your watercolor paint to dry before moving onto the drawing phase of your doodle birds.
Doodle Bird Drawings
After your paint has completely dried, grab your favorite black outlining pen and draw your outlines for your doodle birds. When doing this, you don’t have to follow the exact shape of your watercolor shape.
In fact, you don’t have to follow it at all. You can draw your doodle bird however you want to draw them.
However, it’s easiest to use the shape of your watercolor paint as a guide for your doodle bird drawings. Experiment with different textures and styles. Drawing should always be fun and relaxing, especially when you’re doing doodle drawings.
During this step you can add in wings and a tail, or save them for later. I’ve found that the best method for doing these doodle birds is to draw in the details as they come to you.
You don’t want your drawings to feel forced. Allow yourself to relax and just go with your doodles as they come to you.
Continue working on your watercolor doodle bird drawing by adding in more details, like feet and a beak. You can start adding in little doodles, like lines and shapes at any time.
The tails and wings are a great place to add in some little doodles.
Doodle Bird Embellishments
Finish your doodle bird drawings by drawing in the eyes, wings, breast, and all the little embellishments.
You can add hair to the top of your doodle birds head, and eyelashes to the eyes. You can add designs like swirls and squiggles. Or draw some patterns.
Doodle Bird Background Drawings
When you are finished drawing your doodle birds, move onto the background. You can add anything you’d like here. Add more random doodles, clouds, grass, trees, leaves, or anything else you think looks good in your drawing.
Remember, this exercise is about relaxing and having fun.
Now you need to add some color to your background drawings. You can skip this step if you want to, and just leave the background black and white.
Check out this video by Tamara Laporte, she does an amazing job on her backgrounds and accents.
Since this is an art lesson on how to draw watercolor doodle birds, let’s stick with similar medium for the backgrounds. You can use watercolor paints, colored pencils, or crayons.
Drawing Accents and Highlights
The final step is to add some highlights and accents to your doodle bird drawings. You can do this with any type of medium that will work to draw over your existing color.
Posca paint pens, and white Gelly Roll pens work really well for this. You can add more designs using the paint pens, or fill in additional areas of color.
Doing your drawings on artist trading cards is a great way to experiment and practice different styles and techniques. Since they are small, it is much quicker to finish your artwork than if you’re working on larger scale drawings. Setting an art challenge for yourself is a great way to improve your skills and push your creativity.
Get Your FREE Art Challenge Guide
Critiquing Your Own Artwork
It is always a good idea to critique your own artwork. Or any artwork that you like, for that matter. It’s not enough to just say you like a particular drawing or work of art.
When critiquing a drawing or work of art, all you need to do is make yourself be specific about your thoughts. Ask yourself, what do you like? And what don’t you like?
But be specific. Is it the colors, designs, patterns, negative space, or maybe the lack of negative space. By being really specific, you allow yourself to learn and grow.
These two watercolor doodle bird drawings are my favorites of the bunch. I like how the uneven outline looks more than the ones where I used the solid lines. If I would have done only one or two drawings, I most likely would not have discovered this.
This is why it’s so important to do several drawings, and to practice as much as you can. Everything doesn’t have to be a masterpiece. But if you can figure out what you like, and what you don’t like about drawings, you’ll grow much quicker.
So moving forward, this is the style I will work from and develop.
Doodle Bird Drawings Related Posts
How to Draw Watercolor Doodle Birds
We hope you enjoyed this lesson on painting and drawing doodle birds. And we really hope you feel inspired to draw some of your own.
