How to draw a bird.

1. Look at a bird. Not a picture of a bird, a real bird. A bird is alive and a bird is what you want your drawing to look like. This is "How to draw a bird" not "How to draw a picture of a bird".

2. Reduce the bird to its most vital parts. How few features could it have and still look like a bird?

3. Draw the bird in its reduced form. Think of it as drawing the bird the way it is rather than the way it looks. In drawing the bird you are making it permanent and perfect.

Or a cat.

Or a fish.