I’ve added a new Sketchbook pdf to my Gumroad page. It’s got 54 pages of life drawing, gestures, and animal sketches in a large square format – higher quality than on this blog! For £1 you can own your own copy. Buy it here.
Category Archives: animals
Sketch Club: Wizard of Oz
Wild Child’s sketch prompt this week was ‘The Wizard of Oz’. My choice of character was Toto, played by a Cairn Terrier in the 1939 movie.
Gorilla Sketches
A colleague took a video of some gorillas while visiting his local zoo, and I asked if I could sketch from it. The interactions between the gorillas were fascinating to study.
Wild Life Drawing – Wolf Pups
On Saturday I joined an online drawing class from Wild Life Drawing featuring five-week-old wolf-dog pups from Watermill Wolves. They were alternately incredibly active or completely asleep.
Lots of Liffeys
Liffey was the Irish Setter my family owned while I was growing up. She was a wonderful companion, if a little odd at times. I must have doodled these caricatures of her at some point last year, but I’d forgotten about them until now.
Wild Life Drawing – Wolves
Wild Life Drawing hosts live drawing sessions with animals in the UK. I sadly haven’t ever been able to go to any of their in-person classes, but I have now attended online! Last week I joined in a Zoom drawing class featuring three wolf-dogs from Watermill Wolves. A lot of little mannerisms reminded me ofContinue reading “Wild Life Drawing – Wolves”
Badger Prints For Sale
My badger sketches have proved popular, so I’ve had some lovely A4 prints made! You can purchase them using the buttons below.
Equitots Lanarkshire Pony Booklet
My sister and I were horse mad when we were younger, with model horses, multiple books, and notebooks filled with pony sketches and stories. I still ride, and (when I’m not in lockdown) volunteer with my local Riding for the Disabled group. So creating this booklet for Equitots Lanarkshire was a real pleasure! Lee gaveContinue reading “Equitots Lanarkshire Pony Booklet”
Animal Gestures
Some recent sketches. I love how much is shown by the way the rabbit stretches warily across screen, and the relaxed compared to the alert tail of the squirrels. Body language shares so much story. I’d really like to draw more ‘story’ poses for human characters.
Cats, big and small
Gestures of cats big and small from Line of Action. Some very quick 30 second gestures up to two minute studies.
Dogs
Last week I drew some gesture drawings of dogs from Line of Action and here are a few of the results! I enjoyed trying to capture the attitude of each dog. Most of these were drawn in 30 seconds. The ones with more detail were done in two minutes.
New Portfolio!
It’s been about two and a half years since I last updated my drawing portfolio (!) so I thought it was time to give it a refresh. What’s been exciting about putting this one together is that it’s all new – nothing from the last portfolio is still in it. You can take a lookContinue reading “New Portfolio!”
A Visit to Edinburgh Zoo
Way back in August, after finishing on Klaus (I’m hoping to post more about my work on that soon), I took a day to visit Edinburgh Zoo. Thankfully the weather was pretty good and I was able to see, and draw, a lot of animals.
Move Summit 2019
Move Summit is an industry-focused animation conference in Edinburgh now in its third year. In 2017 and 2018 I was a volunteer, but this time I was able to attend. This year it was a three day event jam-packed with speakers from Pixar, Axis, Aardman Animations, Blue Zoo, and many many more. The first day,Continue reading “Move Summit 2019”
Inktober 2018 #10 – Bree
Bree (or Breehy-hinny-brinny-hoohy-hah, to give his full name) is the titular horse of The Horse and His Boy. Shasta is the boy. I had wondered about drawing Aravis and Hwin, the other main characters, but there are so many other characters I want to draw I initially decided against it. Now I’m two weeks throughContinue reading “Inktober 2018 #10 – Bree”
Inktober 2018 #01 – Elsa
Inktober is an annual drawing challenge which I’ve taken part in before, but this year I’ve decided to do it a little differently. As the name suggests the drawings are supposed to be in ink, but this year I’m going to cheat and draw digitally. My aim with this challenge is to develop my characterContinue reading “Inktober 2018 #01 – Elsa”
Sketches at the Museum
I was in Edinburgh yesterday for an animation event, so I spent some time drawing in the museum on Chambers Street. I sketched a sperm whale skull and a haughty-looking llama as well as some of the visitors. The sketches are pen on paper, but the tone was added digitally.
Muybridge Horse Study
I’ve been busy with work and a family wedding, so it’s taken me a while to post anything new! Here’s a group of studies from one of Muybridge‘s wonderful sequences.
Badgers in the Borders
While my sister and brother-in-law were visiting, a neighbour told us where we could watch badgers. I’d always been under the impression they only ventured out at the dead of night, but he assured us that from around 7pm was a good time to see them. After one false start (we misunderstood his instructions andContinue reading “Badgers in the Borders”
Pigeon
While boarding the Pigeon Crumbs animatic I posted a few weeks ago I drew these reference sketches and character models to help me figure out how the character would look, feel and act.
AJAiken 