If you have always loved animals and are interested in arts and drawing but you have no skills, this is your opportunity. Anyone can learn to draw animals with the correct tools to achieve this goal. If you want to learn how to draw animals the right way you can start by learning a few basic things needed in order to draw animals. First, you need a pencil. Any pencil will do but if you can get your hands on a 7B and 4B pencil, it would be better. You will also need a ruler, an eraser, paper and a sharpener. Once you have your materials, the next thing you need is to find a nice, comfortable place to do your drawings. Once you’re ready to sit down and get down to drawing, here are some pointers to keep in mind.
• It all starts with the wireframe- When beginning to draw an animal, it helps to sketch out general shapes that form the animal’s body first, and then create a more realistic looking body from there.
• Movement – Movement is an integral part in drawing an animal, particularly the more active ones like the horse or the cheetah. Bringing movement into a drawing makes it come alive more than a drawing that has no dynamism or movement at all.
• Angled vs. Curving lines- These different kinds of lines will come in handy when drawing fur and the movement of the body, making the drawing look softer and appear as if they have more movement.
• Texture-Another key to achieving a successful animal drawing is through conveying texture. Different kinds of animals have different fur and hide and a good drawing of an animal should be able to make the viewer ‘feel’ or imagine the kind of texture the animal’s fur or hide has when they look at your drawing.
• Pose- Pose is closely connected to movement. For an animal drawing to look believable, natural and not stiff, the poses must also be believable. You can achieve this by studying how an animal moves either live (at a zoo) through videos on YouTube or from pictures on sites like the National Geographic or watching that channel.
• Stroke weight- Stroke weight is a pencil holding technique that will help you achieve texture when drawing animal fur or animal poses. Varying weights of the strokes of your pencil will make your drawing look more fluid and realistic.
• Avoid ‘scratching’ strokes and outlines- Smooth, long, single strokes look the most natural and appealing in a drawing. Unless you are trying to convey texture, avoid using scratching strokes, especially when making outlines.
• Shading to achieve depth-The difference between a drawing that looks flat and a drawing that ‘pops-out’ lies more in the shading of the drawing.
• Highlights- If shading makes a drawing pop-out more, so does highlighting. This also comes in handy when trying to bring out the texture of the animal’s skin whether it be the shininess of a horse’s skin, the scaliness of a snakes’ or the bumpiness of a toad’s.
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