How Do You Draw Decent Animals?

[3lijah]

Re: How Do You Draw Decent Animals?

Im pretty sure you know that everything that you draw is essentially made of shapes. Just like Pseudo said, draw the skeleton. The benefits in that are so you don't draw certain things out of proportion or unsymmetrical. Pay close attention to detail in the animal you are trying to draw and replicate them to the best of your ability. Over time, your visual aspect gets better and produce works of freakin art faster. Then you can create your own animals, like goddamn neopets.

[Renevatia]

Re: How Do You Draw Decent Animals?

Balance is important, pay attention to center of mass. If moving animal, or anything really, shift center of mass toward direction of motion.
When you get major shapes down, treat the whole anime as a whole as a bean bag with how it interact with the surface it is on.(unless you are drawing crazy buff, big scale animals)
Muscle/skeletal anatomy of reference animals.
Rest is just basics things like shading and definition of shapes, not that they are easy.

[Nullifidian]

Re: How Do You Draw Decent Animals?

The fact that you ask this question makes me wonder what your skill level is.

Everything currently mentioned is kind of cheating on how to approach drawing animals (or anything for that matter). The key to drawing is thinking in shapes/volumes in 3D space. If you understand volumes, you can break down an animal's anatomy into basic shapes and construct the animal into a drawing. Copying reference images won't help if you don't understand volumes. Only when you understand the fundamentals (perspective, value, volume etc.) would reference studies matter cause reference is mainly used to memorize or refer back on the subject matter's appearance. The reference part of drawing is insignificant though compared to understanding how something appears in 3D space, which is why I'm wondering about your skill level.

If you want to get a better grasp on this, I suggest drawing from life first so you can understand how your subject matter is built up. Draw simple things you see laying around, such as pens, phones or whatever. If you understand how to break down objects and project them into a convincing 3D drawing, you should have no problem drawing a realistic animal as it's the same as drawing a realistic pen, only more complex in construction.

This image is relevant:




edit: If you want to get more specific tips, you should probably post a couple drawings of yours so I can tell what you need to work on more.

[MracY]

Re: How Do You Draw Decent Animals?

Yes, that's what I said also.
If Drizzle still uploads something, I'll be sure to fill in any information Spitfire leaves out.

[Renevatia]

Re: How Do You Draw Decent Animals?

thats exactly how I learned to draw an owl.

[ffr212]

Re: How Do You Draw Decent Animals?

[drizzleRomanceGirl]

Re: How Do You Draw Decent Animals?

The fact that you ask this question makes me wonder what your skill level is.

Everything currently mentioned is kind of cheating on how to approach drawing animals (or anything for that matter). The key to drawing is thinking in shapes/volumes in 3D space. If you understand volumes, you can break down an animal's anatomy into basic shapes and construct the animal into a drawing. Copying reference images won't help if you don't understand volumes. Only when you understand the fundamentals (perspective, value, volume etc.) would reference studies matter cause reference is mainly used to memorize or refer back on the subject matter's appearance. The reference part of drawing is insignificant though compared to understanding how something appears in 3D space, which is why I'm wondering about your skill level.

If you want to get a better grasp on this, I suggest drawing from life first so you can understand how your subject matter is built up. Draw simple things you see laying around, such as pens, phones or whatever. If you understand how to break down objects and project them into a convincing 3D drawing, you should have no problem drawing a realistic animal as it's the same as drawing a realistic pen, only more complex in construction.

This image is relevant:




edit: If you want to get more specific tips, you should probably post a couple drawings of yours so I can tell what you need to work on more.

Thank you; I appreciate your help! Honestly, I rarely draw and unless I'm trying to recreate an image that I'm looking at, I pretty much only draw 2-d stick figures which consists of simple lines, ovals, and squares. I'm not nearly advanced as a lot of people in this thread are making me out to be, and I originally just wanted to be able to draw animals so that you can tell which animal I'm drawing without second-guessing. I could show you how I draw animals just by memory and 3-d shapes, but I'm not really looking to improve the way I draw in general because I only find drawing in leisure fun when I copy something that's either in real life or in a picture. Thank you for teaching me how to draw more spacially though!

[MracY]

Re: How Do You Draw Decent Animals?

In that case, try just working on just your spatial awareness.
Look at something and see it as just lines, angles, and distances between them.
Then draw it, and try to copy those lines as good as possible.

This website might help to exemplify what I'm talking about:

http://www.learn-to-draw.com/drawing-basics/07-drawing-pencil.shtml

Once you gain skill in doing what I described above, you can move on onto more advanced things, but those are the basics.

[drizzleRomanceGirl]

Re: How Do You Draw Decent Animals?

In that case, try just working on just your spatial awareness.
Look at something and see it as just lines, angles, and distances between them.
Then draw it, and try to copy those lines as good as possible.

This website might help to exemplify what I'm talking about:

http://www.learn-to-draw.com/drawing-basics/07-drawing-pencil.shtml

Once you gain skill in doing what I described above, you can move on onto more advanced things, but those are the basics.

Thanks. ^.^ I never thought about having some of one stroke lighter and the other part darker before, so I learned something new!