Tag Archives: animals

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.

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.

Practice, practice, practice

Last year I came across this tweet, which challenged me to start thinking differently about how I draw through the week. Most of the time I only draw whatever I feel like, or what I’m working on. Life drawing has been the only regular study I’ve done since school. I pick things up here andContinue reading “Practice, practice, practice”

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”

The Life of Birds

Today I attempted some gesture drawing from an episode of The Life of Birds. As I reached the end of Planet Earth II last year I realised I really should have had my sketchbook out. It’s good training for cafe gesture drawing, which I’m normally pretty hopeless at. As soon as people or animals are actually moving myContinue reading “The Life of Birds”

Animation Base Camp – Bee

If you haven’t seen my previous storyboards from the Animation Base Camp, you may want to start here or here. The story revolves around odd-couple animals at a therapist’s office. The scene below, featuring a bee, was worked on by several different people throughout the Base Camp. I’d recommend looking at Erin’s version – she’s the oneContinue reading “Animation Base Camp – Bee”

Animation Base Camp – Shark

If you haven’t seen my previous storyboards from the Animation Base Camp, you may want to start here. The story revolves around odd-couple animals at a therapist’s office. Throughout the camp I worked on several different versions of a scene involving a shark. Here’s my first, rough, pass: A cleaned up version with a different take:Continue reading “Animation Base Camp – Shark”

Animals at Kelvingrove

Yesterday I had a wander around Glasgow’s West End with some friends from the course. While they had a look round the various exhibits at Kelvingrove I sat and drew some of the stuffed animals. Here are some of the best / least creepy sketches … I think the penguins and the leopard have theContinue reading “Animals at Kelvingrove”

Cats and Dogs

For my grandfather’s birthday, I made him a tie. The actual sewing of it was fairly simple (no complicated seams or sleeves or buttonholes!) but I had a little trouble getting my head around the repeating pattern. There were a few false starts before I got it right. Here’s the original pattern. All the littleContinue reading “Cats and Dogs”

Afternoon at the Museum

I spent part of yesterday afternoon sketching at the museum with a friend. I think having another person there helped me to draw much more than I do normally, alone! The animals all had great personalities and it was fun trying to bring them to life. These are all from the National Museum of ScotlandContinue reading “Afternoon at the Museum”

Bristol Museum

I visited Bristol Museum today and sketched some of the creatures there. This tiger was shot by George V in 1911, which is some sort of distinction I suppose. It was in an amazing crouched position and at first glance appeared to be ferocious. The longer I looked at it, however, the more it lookedContinue reading “Bristol Museum”