CHAPTER 4 | DRAWING FROM REAL LIFE

In real life of course animals move!! Sketching animals that move needs practicing often to make it feel nice and natural (see Handy drawing tips part 2, chapter 4, level 3). But why not start with a sleeping pet?

EXTRA 1: Draw a sleeping pet or find another animal that sits/stands/lies still. Attach your paper to a hard surface with a clip, so you don’t need a table wherever you are. Regardless where you draw, keep looking back and forth while drawing, from your subject to your drawing and back. This way you prevent that you are only staring at your drawing.

EXTRA 2: Try to draw an animal that’s moving slowly, maybe on a farm or in a Zoo.Try to follow the movement with your pencil and sometimes wait a while until a certain posture returns. You won’t have time for precise drawing! These types of sketches therefore often look a bit sloppy or unfinished. (see Handy drawing tips part 2, chapter 4, level 3)

Pelican in the zoo, cleaning it’s plumage, Siberian chalk (50 x 65 cm)

The more animals (or people) move, the more flexible and sketchy you will have to draw. The result may look scratchy or messy but it is a great drawing exercise. As an example, here is a sketch of plowing horses by the Dutch artist Georg Hendrik Breitner (1857-1923).

The 19th-century Haitian artist John James Audubon made studies of birds in their natural habitat in the forest, on the prairie and on river boat trips. He was also a forest ranger and even shot animals to stuff and study them, such as this delicately painted pelican. Audubon was strongly against hunting for thrills and can be seen as one of the founders of nature conservation because of his painted catalog of birds. Some of the birds he painted are now extinct. Nowadays you can of course find stuffed animals such as the pelican he painted in natural history museums.