How To Draw: Eggs and Chicks (Easter Special)

Happy Easter everyone! It is time for me to draw something Easter related again! This year, I will show you how to draw some eggs and an Easter chick. It wouldn't be Easter without them.

Stage One

Eggs are simple to draw, but they do come in many shapes, sizes, colours and patterns. I will draw three examples to demonstrate with; chicken, guillemot and dunnock. The classic chicken egg is a circular shape with one end slightly narrower than the other. The guillemot egg is almost pear-shaped, with one end more narrower than that of a chicken's. The dunnock egg is small and is simply a small circle.

Stage Two

Draw the outline of the egg again, but this time in pen. Rub out the pencil afterwards.

Stage Three

Next, create any pattern that your egg may have in pencil. This can be simply just tiny specks or dots to larger splodges of shading. Each egg is different, so it is up to you to how the egg should look. For the plainer looking eggs, such as my chicken and dunnock eggs, I have given them a light shading along one side and to the bottom of the egg, which I then lightly smudge with my finger to give a 3D feel to them.

Stage Four

Finally, colour in your eggs however you like. It is up to you if you want to colour them in how nature intends them to be or to go full Easter festive mode and colour them in bright colours. The choice is yours. All eggs are different. My chicken egg is a mixture of light browns with some light fleckings. My guillemot egg had its markings gone over in pen and was coloured brown. My dunnock egg is grey and blue.

Stage One

Drawing a chick is no different to drawing an adult bird except for being more fluffy. The chick of a chicken is perhaps one of the most iconic bird chicks in the world and its cute, fluffy yellow down feathers make them very popular and it makes them more associated with Easter than any other young bird. So as it is Easter, I will draw a chicken chick. The basic shapes for drawing most bird chicks is the same as if you were drawing an adult bird; a circle for the head and an oval for the body.

Stage Two

Using these basic shape, you can now build on them to create the body shape of your chick from connecting the head and body together by adding a neck to adding a point for the tail. Most chicks are rounded in shape at this stage of their young lives due to their fluffy down feathers, so keep the shape as round as possible. Add the features such as the bill, legs, eye and a tiny wing.

Stage Three

 When it come to redrawing in pen, only draw the outlines to the bill and feet. The outline for the body is broken up into a series of tiny lines to give the impression of fluffy down and making it look rather adorable. Cover the entire body with these tiny lines, too. Shade in the eye and add a line to divide the bill for its mouth.

Stage Four

Now colour in your chick in however you like. Traditionally, Easter chicks are yellow, but you can add markings of a different colour if you wish. Again, the choice is all yours.

If you want to draw other species of bird, check out my other How To Draw guides by clicking on this link http://seanspetmonster.blogspot.co.uk/p/blog-page.html. From here, you can see other wildlife subjects that I have drawn from birds to flowers. Happy Easter everybody and don't eat too many Easter eggs!

March 27th Felbrigg Hall

Daffodils

It has been a very chilly Easter Sunday with strong blustery winds and yet I was at Felbrigg Hall for a family picnic. I was with my parents, my two brothers, Frazer and Jake and Frazer's fiancee, Laura for this outing and it was freezing. We went for a walk afterwards to the lake and saw plenty of daffodils and primroses, but not a lot of birds.

Bumblebee

Lesser Celandine

Primroses

Marsh Marigold

Chaffinch

Common Toad

From a bridge near the lake, toads were everywhere. They were busy mating and producing strings of spawn. It appears that the frogs have already been busy here too as clumps of frogspawn were floating on the surface. There was no sign of the frogs though as it seems the breeding season for them is now over. They have produced their spawn and have dispersed from the lake. For the toads, however, the breeding season is well under way. The smaller males were wrapping themselves around the backs of the much larger females with the most dominant male winning the rights to fertilize her eggs. Frazer wanted a closer look at one, so he gently caught one for me before releasing it back into the lake.

Frogspawn

Mute Swan

The weather then turned and it started to rain. Actually, it wasn't just raining but chucking it down. We got absolutely soaked! Our clothes were wet through! It ended up being an Easter washout, I am so glad to be back home and dry again.

March 26th Strumpshaw Fen

No, you are not mistaken, I was at Strumpshaw on a Saturday morning today. I wasn't on duty, but I was here as a visitor in search of a few species on my Strumpshaw 40 challenge list. News came to me of a pair of garganey at Tower Hide yesterday and as they can be there one day and gone a few days later, this was one bird on the list that I had to go see now or risk missing out on Wednesday. It was very windy this morning, so the chances were it was forced to stay and shelter at Tower Hide still.

Smooth Newt

I made my way towards the Tower Hide with the cold gusts of wind hitting into me. Everything seems to be taking cover from the wind, all except for this smooth newt which was taking a stroll on the Sand Wall path not far from the path leading to the Fen Hide. Walking along the river trail, I walked past a few visitors walking back from Tower Hide and I asked if the garganeys were about. The answer wasn't promising as no one seemed to have seen them yet today.

Little Egret (15)

At Tower Hide, I could not see any garganey, but I had a hunch that they were still here somewhere. There is an area of scrub on a spit of land where many teal and other ducks were sheltering in. If the garganey were here, they were more than likely deep in this scrub. I decided to wait for a while and see if they would emerge from hiding. While waiting, I realised that there was another of my targets here that I needed a photo of. Little egrets are common and stand out like a sore thumb with their white plumage, black legs and yellow feet. I am surprised that it has taken me this long to tick them off. About 20 years ago, this bird would have been a rarity, but these days, they have colonized and spread right across the country. It could be down to a warming climate that had triggered the little egrets to colonize and who knows, it could mean we could have more exotic bird species from Europe breed at Strumpshaw in the near future.

Marsh Harrier

I continued to wait inside Tower Hide. About 4-5 marsh harriers kept me entertained as they chased each other over the reedbeds on the other side of the broad. They even took it in turns to land on an open area of ground by the edge of the water, giving me great views of them. The harriers are starting to pair up now and they continue to display to each other in an aerial dance. Its amazing to think that five years ago, I spent an hour a week for a couple of months sitting in this hide recording their every movement as they paired up and built their nests. Its a nice reminder to those days of my first year as a volunteer at Strumpshaw as I watch these birds displaying well at this hide today.

Garganey (16)

The harriers were so active at Tower Hide this morning that I have them to thank for swooping low over that scrubby area and causing everything to rush out into the open water. This included the species I have come to see today. Amongst this fleeing flock of teal, shoveler and pochard were the garganey. The male stands out more than the female does with his white eye stripe and chocolate brown head. Out of all the duck species in the UK, the garganey is the only duck that visit us during the summer months. They are starting to arrive back from migration from Africa. Though the male is the most striking, they don't often hang around for long at Strumpshaw. Your more than likely to see female garganeys here than males and they can be very tricky to seperate from the other female ducks, but keep an eye out for a faint stripe above the eye. If you want to see a male, get to Strumpshaw as soon as you can, as you are never sure how long they will stay.

Tufted Ducks

Greylag

Male Pochard

Female Pochard

Common Gull

With the success of seeing the garganeys, I left Tower Hide and popped into Fen Hide on the way back. The hide was packed inside. The Jack snipe had been spotted and some of the visitors were helping others find it for themselves. I managed to see it briefly move about before it melted away into the reeds. I couldn't find it again despite everyone saying that they could still see it. Even with their directions, I still couldn't see it.

Shovelers

Greylag with egg on nest

At Reception Hide, the greylags that took over the coot nest have now laid eggs. I could see at least two being exposed under the female. Then I noticed something else. She was in the process of laying another egg! The father was there comforting her as a white egg was being pushed out of her rear end. It was like watching a baby being born! It was both amazing and disturbing to witness at the same time! I am glad that I am a man. Egg laying looks painful! When I'll eat my Easter egg tonight, that sight will haunt me!

Look an egg!

Mother goose starts to lay a new egg with father goose comforting her!

                                                        Happy Easter everyone!!!!