CHAPTER 3 | DRAWING FROM PICTURES

In this chapter I would like to give you some tips for drawing animals from pictures.

Exercise 1: First try to draw the cat, then draw/make up something it touches with its right paw.

THE BROKEN DRAWING STYLE

It can be difficult to draw an animal with all its soft curves. A helpful tool is the broken drawing style: you first draw the shape of the animal very lightly in loose/broken lines. Only then do you turn it into a smooth outline. Note that where muscles are located, the outline is never concave (this also applies to the human figure). The broken drawing style was already used in the Renaissance (ca. 1350-1600).

Exercise 2: Draw the dog using the broken drawing style. Invent an object at nose height on which it is focused. Is he curious, playful or afraid of something?

Also in the sketch of a panther by the Dutch artist Breitner (1857-1923) you can see places where he used the broken drawing style.

USING ASSISTING LINES

With a few assisting lines for the most important directions or proportions, you are less likely to make mistakes in a posture. Basic shapes such as a triangle, circle, oval and rectangle can also serve as a guide. I chose animals from the side to avoid complicated perspective foreshortenings.

Exercise 3: Draw one or more of the following examples with the use of assisting lines.

The rabbit Thumper from the same movie Bambi was originally drawn by Bill Justice (1914-2011). For the head, I drew a circle as a basic shape and two construction lines to indicate the rotated position (see the lesson Heads and faces part 3, chapters 1 and 2, level 3). Also useful was an assisting line between the head and one of the feet.

Often the names of the cartoonists of animals from (comic) books and animation films are less well known than the names of the writers. For example, the Chinese-American cartoonist Tyrus Wong (1910-2016) is the artist of Bambi in the Walt Disney film of the same name. His first sketches (left) are a bit rougher than the final drawings for the film (right) (both here drawn after Tyrus Wong).

For the funny hedgehog from a story by the Dutch writer Toon Tellegen, originally drawn by Annemarie van Haeringen, a vertical assisting line is useful to ensure that the left foot, of the standing leg, is directly positioned under the head.

EXTRA: draw a favorite animal from a (comic) book, cartoon, game or animation film.

ANATOMICAL STUDIES

The shape of an animal, just like a human being, is determined by its skeleton and muscles. You can see this best in anatomical drawings. They can be real masterpieces, usually intended as study material. This skeleton drawing of a dog was made by the Dutch architect/painter Christiaan Kramm (1797-1875). You can print this picture and try to create outlines of the dog around the skeleton.

In a book about feline predators, the dutch artist Herbert van der Poll (1877-1963) drew beautiful pictures like the skeleton drawing of a lion from the side. Pay attention to the thin outline of the lion. It shows the connection between the skeleton and the shape of the lion. Dead and stuffed animals were used for these types of highly detailed drawings.

The last drawing with the muscles is extremely complicated. In the text of the book, all bones and muscles are numbered and named! In this way, it is also study material for biologists and veterinarians.