How to draw a Good Enough chicken

[blockquote source=”Martina Navratilova”]The difference between involvement and commitment is like ham and eggs. The chicken is involved; the pig is committed.[/blockquote]

When it comes to Agile project management (or even sports), there are Pigs and there are Chickens.

It’s really easy to be a Chicken and contribute ideas in which you don’t have a vested interest or stake. But it’s a whole other story when you have to put some skin (or ham) in the game!

So the next time you need to illustrate the difference between contributors to a project versus idea generators who don’t have to put up their own bacon, try drawing up some pigs and chickens. And since we already know how to draw a Good Enough pig, let’s learn how to draw a Good Enough chicken!

(@JeanLestang, this one’s for you!)

Three Tips

I draw my chickens a little bit funny. I start them with the swoop of the head, going down into the back. You may prefer to to draw the eye and the beak first, then draw the swoop of the head around it. Either way, this sets the scale for the rest of the drawing. Try it both ways and see which one works best for you!

In my mind’s eye, chickens have small-but-fluffy feather butts that swoop up into a fluff of feathers. Draw the tail as a single point or with downward feathers and it just doesn’t quite say “chicken” in the same way. Draw too big of a tail fluff going up and it may start to read “turkey.” To scale my tail feathers (step three), I think of them as fingers and draw them so that only the top two joints of the fingers show.

When I think about a chicken, I also think about drumsticks. (I know, sorry!) So when I draw my chicken’s legs, I draw a wee bit of those drumsticks peeking out at the bottom of the body (as in step five) before I draw the legs and feet. It just adds a bit more meat to my bird and makes it more “chicken-like” instead of being bird-like.

There you are! No harm no fowl! ;^)

And that’s it! What does YOUR chicken look like? Draw yours up, Tweet it out to @jeannelking #goodenough, and see who clucks back!

I cannot wait to see what you draw forth,

P.S. Want to have fun drawing AND inspire others to pick up the pen at the same time? Got something you wish you could draw, but you’re not sure how to approach it? [highlights color=”ffea00″]Tweet your drawing or idea to @jeannelking and tag it with #goodenough: it could be featured in an upcoming “how to draw Good Enough” blog post![/highlights]

2 Comments

John Lesko says:

August 14, 2014 at 6:41 am

I absolutely love your “ham & eggs” analogy. And if the whole true be known, I’ve used this story to illustrate the differerence between fully committed and merely involved for years.

Have you heard about the farmer and his 3-legged pig? … Which is a visual metaphor that speaks to why some companies overwork their key talent.

Doodle on,
John Lesko

1. Jeannel says:
  
  August 14, 2014 at 7:36 am
  
  Exactly! Working them (literally) to the bone! Doodle on, John! ;^)

How to draw a Good Enough chicken