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Animals and wildlife

Form the earliest days of mankind, we have drawn images of the animals we have hunted, admired or feared. From the primitive cave drawings to huge bronze statues of galloping horses such as those in the Fountain of Trevi. Capturing the movement and power these animals has fascinated us. Artists like George Stubbs became masters in painting horses. The key is to observe and keep looking.

Drawing the volumes

If you want to draw a horse, first look at its profile, then divide the animal into five separate volumes, the head, neck, shoulder, abdomen and rear.

The first three volumes to draw are the shoulder, abdomen and rear. Once you have drawn these in the correct proportions then you can continue with the neck and head.

Learn the anatomy

If you understand how the bones are joined together, then you sketch will make sense and you will be able to show movement. Remember that bones are limited in the directions and amount in which they can turn. The posture of the animal must always look natural. Even if there is no motion in the drawing, perhaps it is a cat sleeping on a chair, you have to respect the way the body can bend and twist.

The position and stance will depend on the species in questions and you should try to observe how the animal you are drawing walks, runs and its general behaviour.

This article is an extract of the Signus online drawing course

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 14th, 2007 at 12:03 pmand is filed under Animals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Animals and wildlife”

• Karen Baker Thumm Says:
  July 15th, 2009 at 10:44 pm

  I hate to point this out, but you have the neck vertebrae on the horse too high coming out of the shoulder. The vertebrae are not aligned along the top of the neck; not until they reach the poll.

  Check out this link for a more accurate view of the skeleton and neck;

  http://www.localriding.com/horse-skeleton.html
• Francois Carlson Says:
  July 16th, 2009 at 6:51 pm

  Hello Karen,
  Thank you for your comment. We understand your point. Give us a little time to correct.

  Best regards

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