Learn how to Draw Animals

Learn How to Draw Animals:

The magic of a painting or drawing on a black surface is nothing less than startling!

And I am now going to show you just what I mean.

If you haven't done any of this work before, it's about time you were introduced to it, and I can tell you from my own personal experiences.

It's a joy to try, and to just see how the effect such art has on you.

More-or-less anyone who gets to see it.

I am wondering if you have really seen any of this work before.....

I have done this sort of style for a few different pieces of work commissions, and also tried dabbling in doing some of this style for myself. And I for one want to get back into it, because its just a joy to do.

"The essential of painting is that something, that 'ethereal glue,' that intermediary product which the artist secrets with all his creative being and which he has the power to place, to encrust, to impregnate into the pictorial stuff of the painting." - Yves Klein (1928-1962).

And if you want to learn how to draw animals, this style is nothing less than magnificent when bringing the animal to the fore-front of a scene.

Photo Courtesy: swilde44
Here is one such example of a Russian Blue cat portrayed on a black surface, notice how the highlights of the cat have been featured. drawing with oil pastels.

As with what we looked into before, drawing on a colored background in learn how to draw animals.

This concept is a whole lot similar, so I encourage to go and have a look at that page also.

So we are not going to worry about putting in the shadows, as the black background has already taken care of this for us. We need to be concentrating on the highlights.

You could say that you are working in reverse to what you would normally be working in. Or to put it another way, on a clear white background; you would be having to put in the shadows and the highlights of your drawing or painting.

Here on learn how to draw animals, we are looking at filling in the highlights. Not many colures have been used in this drawing, yet we do have a few startling colures that have crept in here that have just lit up the neutral natural colures of the cat.

See the yellows and the purples, you might not have thought about adding these certain colures, but they work!

The colures are startling, yet also subtle in the way that they have been applied.

Photo Courtesy: Juli's pix's

Here we have a close up side view of a cat. Can you see how all of the cat has not been filled in?

It seems to fade away, and appear again. Thinking on how you would learn how to draw animals, you might think of many ways that you can change the idea of solid forms.

You don't have to put in all outlines to make it look natural, and this method of using a black background makes it all the easier when working with shadows.

Do you ever get tired of learning how to draw animals..... no I don't think you do.

There are so many different ideas you can come up with as you study nature, and so many different sources, so you don't have to stay with just a few styles.

One thing here in this drawing that I like very much is the use of red/browns used. It looks fantastic drawn on top of the black, and as for the whiskers, they stand out beautifully. The black background has given this drawing a whole new dimension.

One way of getting the cats whiskers so fine if you are using pastels for example, is to break the rules and go ahead and use a paint with a very fine brush, it is best to get a brush with long hairs.

You can make a brush like this yourself if you are fond of plucking out many of the brush hairs......

Photo Courtesy: corvidae

Now were going from cats to horses, as we want to learn how to draw animals, this applies for all the animal kingdom.

On this example, you can see that the horse is literally brought to life by the use of using highlights alone. See how the black background does the rest.

The artist has used only one color here, and just how effective this can also be.

The softening in areas is done by smudging the color, this way it looks a bit Grey as it is blended in to the black background, softening these areas, and bringing in texture.

You can do this in many ways by using: your fingers, a piece of paper towel, which can be condensed and twisted to a point, also a piece of rag, even sponge........

Hint: If you like a picture, and you want to do this sort of style, you can open it up on a picture editing program and select the application that can change the picture to a negative.

This way you will get the idea of doing the same as above with the horse.

If you apply these ideas and learn how to draw animals in this way, you can create effects that really bring out the animal in brilliance on a black background such as this.

There are different choices of black backgrounds. Such as:

• Black Cardboard

• Black Paper

• Black Velvet

• Black Suede

Each material will need different mediums of application, and you will also end up with a whole range of different effects.

Some will be easier to use than others, it depends how much of a challenge you want to give yourself.

I once draw a cat walking along a tree branch in just silver paint. I used acrylic paint on velvet and used a stronger bristled art brush, so that the paint would adhere more easily to the grains of the material.

It will probably just lay on top of the velvet grain, that's fine, as the overall picture looked great.

Photo Courtesy: corvidae
You might be wondering how I mounted velvet to paint on.

I got some art glue and glued it onto a solid back that I had cut out. It does not have to be thick.

You just need to do some hunting around to find a good flat surface, whatever material you use for the backing.

The same would be for suede, you can get any of these at a material shop, cut to the length you want.

Here we have another horse... see how the artist has used a different effect of really bringing out the horses mane by using the white color to it's best advantage.

You can pick out a certain color and really make it the most dominant. And in this case, the white brings out a sort of fullness to the horses mane, and also highlights the white in all other areas of the picture.

I would suggest that you start off with using a black form of paper, and starting off this way.

Because you are not only adapting yourself to a different style of drawing, you also need to get used to using the background as your half finished picture, bringing out the highlights with the other colures you are going to use.

So just get used to this firstly, and then tackle other sorts of materials later on.

As you don't want to have to contend with so many challenges all together, gently slide into this way of drawing first, and when you learn how to draw animals in this way. I am sure you will be very pleased with what this sort of style with give back to you and your work.

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