John James Audubon Free Lesson Download
Something for your older students....
With forgeries, faux newspaper articles & ads, a drawing and more your students will have fun learning about John James Audubon.
A Bird in the Hand is Worth Two in the Book
JOHN JAMES AUDUBON
Today we here at the Mill Grove Gossip are interviewing Mr. John James Audubon, ornithologist and artist extraordinaire.
US: Good Morning, Mr. Audubon.
AUDUBON: Good Morning.
US: First, I’m curious, what is Mill Grove?
AUDUBON: It’s the name of a farm that my father owns here in Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. I lived here when I first came to America.
US: I see. So, tell us about your new book, The Birds of America.
AUDUBON: What do you want to know?
US: Well, for starters, what’s it about?
AUDUBON: The birds of America.
US: Um, we gathered that, but what kind of book is it? Is it fiction, nonfiction, a travel book, a scientific book, a comic book?
AUDUBON: It’s not you’re average book. I guess you’d call it a picture book. Every page is a hand-colored engraving of one of my meticulous and scientifically accurate paintings.
US: Wow! Every page is dedicated to a different bird? That must be a humongous book.
AUDUBON: It is. It’s about three feet tall, two feet wide, and contains over 400 pages.
US: Those are some huge sheets of paper!
AUDUBON: In the publishing industry the name of this particular sheet size is called a “double elephant” size.
US: Why so big?
AUDUBON: I wanted to be able to show all of the birds life-sized. And some of those birds are pretty big.
US: Which one was the biggest?
AUDUBON: The Greater Flamingo. It is so tall that I had to paint him with his head down in a drinking pose just to fit him on the page.
US: What about the little tiny birds like hummingbirds? Don’t they look small and lonely all by themselves on such big sheets of paper?
AUDUBON: To avoid that I painted the smaller birds in groups of twos, threes, fours, and sometimes more, depending on the size. Ten humming birds fit on one page with room to spare.
US: I bet a book that size took a long time to put together.
AUDUBON: Indeed. I spent over 14 years trudging through the wilds of North America doing research for this project, with hundreds of hours dedicated to sketching and painting specimens. You wouldn’t believe the mosquito bite scars I have to show for it.
US: You said that the engravings are all hand painted. Did you paint them all yourself?
AUDUBON: No. I only painted the originals. My publisher has hired expert engraver Robert Havel Jr. to carve the plates that will be used to print the pages of The Birds ef America. A team of fifty professional artists will hand-color each print.
US: I see. So when does the book come out? When can I go to the bookstore and buy one?
AUDUBON: Well, this book is a little different than most. My publisher is releasing the book to the public five sheets at a time over a period of eleven years. Each installment of five paintings will include one large bird like the Greater Flamingo and four small birds or groups of birds like the Ruby Throated Hummingbirds.
This interview is continued in American Art History: Volume II and the full interview is in the PDF download below. Enjoy!
Like birds? I hope so. The John James Audubon free download gives you information on the artist, two forgeries (Greater Flamingo and American White Pelican), cartoons, a faux ad and faux newspaper articles. You also receive drawing instructions for the American White Pelican. This is good stuff. Enjoy!
In the download:
PDF file with lesson and drawing instructions
PDF file with drawing template to start drawing (to print)
This lesson and 15 others are available in:
American Art History: Volume II
Drawing American Art: Volume II
There’s also a bingo game (not included in the download) that cover the 31 art pieces in the book:
Download the Audubon Lesson (zip file)
Download the Audubon Lesson (pdf file)
This is lovely. Thank you. We live very near the John James Audubon park in Kentucky. It's a treasure. They have several of these enormous books on display! I appreciated reading this interview, particularly about how it took 14 years to compile the book. That sort of dedication seems missing today. That's a long time to devote to something, but very worth the time. He created such beauty. More than a bird field guide, but a work of art also.
Great material! It makes learning an adventure.