Third practice at drawing animals whilst following Tracy Verdugo’s “Animal Antics” classes. In that lesson, we start with a Warm Up lesson, a great introduction to sketching animals! I have little experience with sketching other kinds of animals; my animals are typically limited to cats, bunnies, teddies and dogs and in simple shapes. So how do I draw them “properly” and in different positions? Sideways? Different poses? Plus How do I begin? This lesson was most helpful in getting us gave us started.
Charcoal Screen
First we grab a paper, preferably one suited for charcoal and pastel drawing and scribble on some charcoal from the side of the stick. I opted for some beige drawing paper this time.
The Sketch
Once that was done, we start drawing the shape of the animal of our choice. The first and second times, I went for a walking cat and elephant from sideways views both which turned out rather well. I thought for this time, though, I’d try drawing another animal I draw quite a lot, and that’s a bunny! Like my cats, my bunnies tend to be frontal views and rarely from the side. In fact, I don’t think I’ve even ventured into sketching the side view of a bunny, and here was my chance to try it out! Some photos and handy drawing tips for that were searched on Google. The rest followed through trial and error. As you can see here, it’s not perfect but later on, we can tweak it as we work through the drawing!
Emergence through Negative Space
Here is where things get interesting! We don’t actually paint the subject itself, we work around it. The aim of this exercise is to focus on the negative spaces, and by using the eraser to take away the charcoal we allow the image to emerge. If we have taken out too much charcoal, we can always add it back on. This method gets us to concentrate on the shape of the animal first rather than the fine details. Once we are happy with it of course, we can start adding the details and add more charcoal to enhance the subject. It took some time to get it right but in the end, I eventually made it. And here is my cute little bunny!
Another intriguing adventure with practicing drawing animals! More intriguing is that they are not in poses I normally sketch as. Once I got the gist of it the first time through this negative space method, the others were not as difficult. This is the third and final practice, and in the next half of the Warm-Up lesson, we will be jumping into the same method but with paint and ink. Looking forward to it! That said, it would be a good idea to come back to the charcoals now and again to refresh. Thanks, Tracy, for this wonderful idea!
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My Kawaii Quarter 