EXERCISE 1

Here is an example of an animal that can be easily broken down into constructional shapes of mainly ovals. Do your page in exactly the same way (as if you were showing someone the stages.) i.e., draw the first ovals 5 times and then add more to each stage. This way you can do this exercise once a week or more, and keep all of your practice pages. It is reassuring to look back on your progress later on.

Introduction to Drawing Animals

I have created many DIY tutorials for practice in drawing animals, particularly by breaking them down into basic shapes such as circles, ovals, triangles and rectangles. Kids love this, but actually, it is excellent eye-brain-hand training for adult drawers too.

Getting the relative sizes, angles, proportions and relationships of shapes is the first step, then each area can be refined one by one and then the particular detail of the animal's fur, skin, marks etc. can be done. If this is a particular subject of interest, just like any other subject, you’ll need to observe and become familiar (very familiar) with an animal’s unique anatomy and features to get a very realistic drawing or painting. There are many ways of breaking down the shapes into simple geometric ones, and then refining one part at a time.