Learn the basics for drawing any animal in a few simple steps.
Drawing a picture of an animal can be challenging at first. Study your subject carefully and learn to see your subject as lines and shapes. This will help you understand how a picture comes together. Whether you're an experienced artist or a beginner, the secret to a great drawing is practice. The more you draw, the better an artist you will be.
Instructions
Drawing Animals with Pencil
1. Take a photo of the animal you want to draw or find a picture in a magazine, book, or on the Internet. Animals rarely sit still so it's always easier to sketch from a photo.
2. Study the basic body shapes of each part of the animal, and lightly block out the shapes using ovals, squares, rectangles or triangles. Note where the animal's joints are located and angle accordingly.
3. Sketch the curves of the animal's body over the basic shapes. Round out the shoulders by softly sketching a curving line starting at the top and down to the foot. Keep in mind the muscles of the shoulder will be fuller than those in the lower legs. Move to the back haunch and round out the muscle to come down over the thigh. Bring the line down to the foot. Fill in the line down the back from neck to tail. Study the chest and stomach area of the animal in your picture and fill in the space between the front and back legs. Note how deep the line of the chest is and do your best to replicate it. Be sure to keep your lines light until you feel the placements is correct. Work your way around the entire body by softening the angles and darkening your lines.
4. Sketch in the eyes. The best way to do this is to lightly sketch a grid over the head of the animal in your photo and over your sketch. See where the eyes are placed within the grid on your photo. This will show the correct placement of the facial features in your sketch. Eyes are either round or oval. If oval, take note of the degree of tilt of the oval placement in the face.
5. Using the grid, note where the nose is placed in the photo. Lightly sketch the nose. Step back from your drawing to see if the placement is correct in correlation to the grid lines. Once you're satisfied with the placement of the nose, darken your lines.
6. Sketch in the mouth. Using the grid lines as reference, lightly put in lines for the mouth. Once you've found the correct location darken your lines.
7. Layer in the fur. Look at the type of fur on the animal and match your stokes to the length and curve of the fur. Use your photo as a reference of how the length and texture differs in some areas and sketch the fur accordingly.
8. Add shadows to your animal. Study the picture and note how the light hits the animal. Layer in the shadows where you see darker areas on the picture. Be aware that the size of the muscles and length of the fur will also affect the shadows on the body.
