Now that we’ve talked about drawing in proportion, I want to take you through several exercises of drawing different animals using the tips and techniques we’ve looked at. Today I’m working with one of my favorite subjects, my tabby cat Eddy, mostly because he won’t leave me alone and is constantly posing for a picture. Step 1 is to block out his head, chest, and hips in large simple shapes. And since an animal is “organic”, you would use circular and oval shapes for blocking.
Next, connect the shapes to define the outline, or the contour of the animal. Still keeping the drawing very simple, and without much detail yet.
Once you are comfortable with the look of the proportions, continue your project in any media you’d like. I turned my cat drawing into my Spirit Animal. I used a Sharpie to add all these wonderful patterns, staying with classic black and white. I also included some of the characteristics of that Spirit Animal that I identify with. Whether you keep it realistic, or more playful, have fun and be bold.
