How to Draw Animals?

Answer 1

Whether it's an elephant, a horse, a dolphin, a penguin or a panda, drawing an animal always starts simply with ovals, rectangles and triangles. How hard is that? Follow the instructions below and you'll soon have your own two-dimensional menagerie.

Let's start with an elephant.

Drawing An Elephant

Before you begin sketching, have your supplies handy. You'll need a three freshly sharpened pencils, a pencil sharpener, a gum eraser (which you can buy in any art supply store), sketching paper and whatever kind of pen you want to render your completed drawing in. If you don't have a visual imagination, you may also want to have a photograph on hand as a model _ unless you can coax Dumbo to stand there motionless in your living room for 15 minutes or so!

First step: Don't draw an outline of the animal. Instead, study the animal for a couple of minutes and try to break the image into geometrical shapes. Big circle for the head! Even bigger circle for the rear! The legs are more of a curvilinear rectangular shape, right? The ears are triangles with rounded corners. The tail, the trunk and the tusks are boomerang shapes of various sizes. Voila! Your drawing has a foundation.

Next, you'll add the details. The eyes are ovals. The mouth can be a triangle or a semi-circle. Do you want your elephant to look coquettish? Add some eyelashes and hair. Erase the sections of the geometrical shapes that add nothing to your actual elephant portraiture.

Finally, grab your pen. Some people like felt tips; others prefer the smooth flow of a fountain pen. Trace the pencil lines with your pen and your done.

Drawing Other Animals

This technique works with every animal in the zoo, and others besides. Want to try it one more time? This time let's draw a penguin. Again, focus on geometrical shapes: an elongated oval for the body, a smaller oval for the head, a teardrop shape for the bill, polygons for the wings, neck and webbed feet. Personality comes with the details: ovals for eyes, curvy lines for mouth, nostrils, eyebrows and the occasional tufts of feathers. Erase the lines that don't add to the portrait; go over the remaining lines in ink.

Let's generalize then from our elephant and our penguin. The most important part of drawing an animal is figuring out what geometrical shapes best suggest its body type.. Now, start drawing!