John Muir Laws's guide to drawing birds is itself winged, soaring between a devotion not only to art but also to the lives, forms, and postures of the birds themselves.

Here, artistic technique and the exquisite details of natural history intertwine, and drawing becomes the vehicle for seeing. As Laws writes, "To draw feathers, you must understand how feathers grow, overlap, and insert into the body. To create the body, you must have an understanding of the bird's skeletal structure. To pose this skeleton, you must be able to perceive the energy, intention, and life of the bird."

This how-to guide will perfect the technique of serious artists but also, perhaps more importantly, it will provide guidance for those who insist they can't draw. Leading the mind and hand through a series of detailed exercises, Laws delivers what he promises: that "drawing birds opens you to the beauty of the world." An Audubon Book.

John Muir Laws is a naturalist, educator, and artist. He has degrees in conservation and resource studies from the University of California, Berkeley, and in wildlife biology from the University of Montana, Missoula, as well as certification in scientific illustration from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is an Audubon TogetherGreen fellow and a research associate with the California Academy of Sciences. He is the author of "The Laws Guide to Drawing Birds." "The Laws Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada" and "Sierra Birds: A Hiker's Guide." Visit his website at www.johnmuirlaws.com.