You Can Draw Your Favourite Animals!

Do you like to draw or paint? I occasionally like to get my paints out (watercolours) and have an art afternoon. Usually my paintings are abstracts. I call myself an abstract artist sometimes, but really it’s because I’m not very good at painting non-abstract things, such as buildings, people and nature.

On the odd occasion, an animal I’ve drawn will actually look like it’s supposed to. I was quite pleased with both my swan paintings you can see in this article. However, I do have cross-eyed owls and wonky badgers which will not be shown to the public!

You may look at a picture or photo of an animal and wonder where on earth to start. Well, there are some easy guidelines to drawing animals – based on shapes. This link is a good one for drawing realistic-looking animals. If you’re looking for something more cartoonish and fun, this is a brilliant video – in no time at all, you could be drawing all sorts of animals!

When it comes to colouring your works of art, it’s entirely up to you what you choose. I began using coloured pencils when I was in my teens and still use them today. They are much easier to control than paint and, if you get good quality pencils such as Derwent or Faber-Castell, you can improve on shading/shadow and even overlap two colours. They may be more expensive than other pencils, but you’ll notice a big difference. If you can’t afford them yourself, ask your family to buy you a selection as a birthday or Christmas present. Oftentimes, children give up a hobby because the materials they use are sub-standard, and the results don’t look as good as what they are copying from.

There is something for everybody in the natural world, whether it’s the majesty of a sequoia tree standing tall against the sky, the excitement of a predator chasing its quarry in a race for life or death, the grace of a swan as it glides over a lake’s surface or the beauty of a crocus bringing colour to the winter. You’ll find many more examples in our Nature quizzes. There are over sixty of them and they’re all free so why not take a look today?