Animals
Drawing animals is trickier than drawing landscapes, florals of most still life compositions. But they’re simpler than the human figure so they provide a nice middle ground for practicing getting your proportions right.
Use basic shapes! Get the overall placement and proportion of the use correct first before you start sketching in detail we have a sample video lesson on Youtube that will take you through the basic process - watch it here.
1 A pelican with a fish in its mouth (superb image)
2 A giraffe
(great for practising proportions that you actually see, not what you think you see)
3 this stunning profile of a horse (another one on my list with its beautiful shadows!)
4 A stag walking (use basic shapes and negative space to get the proportions correct)
5 A flamingo (a nice easy one with simple shapes)
6 this stirring portrait of a fox (don’t worry about fur detail if it’s a quick sketch)
7 this white dove at an interesting perspective or this one about to land (the lack of markings makes it a quicker sketch for you)
8 An elephant walking towards you (elephants are great for sketching with basic shapes and usually have nice strong shadows for creating form - here’s a 10min sketch of mine)
9 A grey squirrel eating a nut (simple shapes would make this relatively easy for the outline)
10 A farmyard hen (do the head in some nice detail and go looser for the rest of the body)