Drawing - Animal Drawing Essentials 

its the simple quesiton of, where do I want to put what, we are not lexicons, we need reference, never stop using reference when ur able to.

go to science videos if you can or look at animal anatomy pdf's and memorize. Its better to memorize skeletons and than muscles after. It takes time but is worth it if you plan to draw professionally.

google "animal anatomy pdf" there's a bunch of hits. I learned a lot from ellenberger' atlas.

Yikes, i feel bad for you @Dougann . Ik the person was trying to help, but studying from science books and pdf's is absolutely unecesarry when you've got all these beautiful anatomy books and e-courses nowadays made specifically for DRAWING. I hope you found proko's channel or Sinix Designs' stuff cause that's beyond amazing to study from.

@@maksimcho. I'm late lol~ but I'm sure in the end, both pdf's and e-courses are BOTH good ways to learn! Everyone learns differently, and the more information, the better! :)

I have no doubt in my mind that the first couple dozen times pros like Aaron here tried drawing animals from life out on farms and stuff, they came out laughably bad. Don't be too upset! Mistakes are good because you can focus on where you consistently messed up, then work on improving those aspects.

Total Trash Mammal Thanks for the reminder. Don't worry I won't give up. I know progress comes with training. I will change my process and try again. Next time I will keep it simple and do sketches of the poses only in pencil. I did this of a sleeping wolf and it came out okay. This way the values will be there and I could still add color later at home. I am sure this way I will be able to focus more^^

Aijahlon Yancy wow, that's cool, good luck ^^

Aijahlon Yancy I

Aijahlon Yancy whats the name of the book? :)

Just the way, not portfolios only own projects sell...

no

Stephanie Wozny I feel the same. I went out today life drawing (for the first time) and I was overwhelmed. At least now we know. Next time will be better. If you want to get a good chair to-go there are backpacks with in-built chairs. This way you have your supplies and the chair with you at the same time.

Noreetha, thanks for the tip! I'll be looking into backpack chairs in the immediate future. And, yes, life drawing for the firs time IS overwhelming. But through continuous practice, finding out what works for your specifically, and of course, helpful guidelines by people like Aaron here, it becomes a little easier to navigate.

There are some live streams of zoo's and animals a like online, I guess that's the next best thing:0

The reason why drawing from life helps is that when we watch something we get an image from each eye creating a 3D dimension, while a camera only has 1 eye so it doesn't stick in your brain as good. However, if you don't have animals then watching sculptures, documentaries and even detailed toys can be of help. You can spin it around, see how light and shadow hits and so on. With documentaries try to watch as high quality as possible to be able to see how each bone and muscle affects the skin, how they close their eyes when it's bright, individual differences in proportion, where weight collects on individuals (my donkey has an insulin problem so she has a fat top of the neck and ripples on the hip area and round but not overly round belly and still some skinnyness over the thighs and here and there) which can't really be picked out of imagination. Of course watching other people draw your subject of interest builds a library too. Maybe wish for a trip to animals for Christmas and birthdays? Or Google local farms and contact for a visit, farmers loves visits! Especially small farms. I searched "chicken farm near me" or "buffalo farm minnesota" and found not too far away! The buffalo farm probably closed down by now and I didn't draw back then but I asked if I could come with my camera and they loved that I was interested in their passion! If you are allergic you can talk to your doctor about this field trip if you think you need something better managed. Oh! And pet stores! If you ask you can probably draw birds, lizards, all sorts of things to practice the skill of capturing a moment! Then when you can meet animals you have worked out struggles and can enjoy it with less frustration!

Ok...that's funny right there.

cant thank you enough!

you should still follow the basic principals, just without the legs. look at skeletons and anatomical diagrams of snakes and draw them from life. once you can visualise how the bones and muscles sit and interact its becomes much easier to draw. its all about practice and reinforcing the basics of anatomy