- Use line to reflect the animal's personality: a soft-focus pastel kitty, or a spiky pen and ink? A lazybones flowing-line pen pooch or a bouncy, energetic graphite gopher.
- Practice drawing the animal in motion. Spend some time watching your pet, or on a portable chair at the zoo, doing quick thumbnail sketches that capture the main forms and movement.
- Look at some old drawings. What did you have the most trouble with? Eyes? Paws? Do a whole page just of that part.
- We have a tendency to humanise animals or treat them like cute babies. Try experimenting with compositions that will show the natural dignity of your subject.
- There are long traditions of painting and drawing domestic and wild animals that you can draw on - looking back at art history is a great starting point. Try drawing your favourite horse in the style of George Stubbs, for instance.
- Take a virtual safari: do some internet research on a distant, exotic country. Draw the animals you might see if you travelled there. You could print out some items - flags, maps, diagrams - to add as collage pieces.
ANIMAL DRAWING PROJECT
Create a series of drawings each featuring a different breed or variety of the same animal. In each drawing, look for the identifying characteristics of that breed. For some creatures, subtle differences will need to be observed. For others, the differences will be marked. You might like to isolate the animal on a white page, or set them in a typical environment.
