Drawing or painting animals are
not always as hard as it looks to be. Very often we get so
impressed on how richly detailed animal drawings / paintings can
be. And then we try to do something similar, but with no good
results, so we get discouraged and give up. This article’s purpose
is to encourage you to not give up that easily.
To do a good cat drawing, dog
drawing or whatever animal you want to draw, it is very important
to not be in a rush while doing it. I can guarantee you that 99%
of those great animal paintings / drawings have taken lots of time
to do, not just 30 minutes! And I’m just as sure that this artist
didn’t just do it perfect right away, instead they had the change
things here and there and spent lots of time on getting the right
proportions etc.
The best way to start is by
looking at the outward lines of the animal, and then trying to get
them on the paper, and don’t start shading and all that until you
are satisfied with the proportions are right. A lot of the times
it is better to not draw the hardest part of the animal at this
early stage, instead focus on the easier parts first. This way you
will not get discouraged as easily.
So starting out, just look at the animal reference picture for a
while and then start drawing some thin lines that are easy to
erase. And do not start shading and all that until your are fully
satisfied how the lines look, because once you start to shade this
is harder to erase later on.
When you are happy with the general proportions of the animal then
start to work on the shading. One hint here is to start at the
left upper corner if you’re right handed and move slowly to the
center area, because that will help you not to get the whole
drawing messy with your arm over the painting.
When you think your drawing is
done, put it away and do something else. And perhaps the next day
or so come back and look at it. Doing this will probably make you
realize a few mistakes on your animal drawing that you didn’t
notice while working on it.
Lastly, remember that you don’t
need tons of talent to make a great animal painting / drawing,
because patience is everything!
