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Drawing Animals For The First Time

Sharing some of my recent animal drawings, favorite art styles and inspiration.

A few weeks ago, while I was walking my puppy, I saw some adorable bees feeding on some wild daisies. The scene was so striking and colourful, the kind that makes you want to stop everything to take a photograph and preserve the moment forever.

Afterwards, I felt an impulse to draw this picturesque scene. It made me realize that I had never really placed insects or animals at the center stage of a drawing. They’ve usually been background after-thoughts, even though they’re very interesting subjects.

I used the photo I took as reference, and aimed for a coloring book/child-like style.

I have a particular liking towards black and white drawings with bright backgrounds. The contrast makes the line-art pop so well!

In this next drawing, I was inspired by a bird’s nest. While I was watering a mint plant, I was pleasantly surprised to find a bird sitting near the leaves. Upon further examination, I saw two cute little eggs in the middle of the pot! The bird itself was a common “tortolita”, a ground-dove endemic to Puerto Rico.

However, I thought it was a Reinita initially, another endemic bird of the island. I found a rather striking image of the latter, so I opted to draw it instead.

For this one, I wanted to use more muted colors, thick lines and a slight “RGB shift” effect. This last technique I’ve been experimenting with a lot lately. If you zoom in on the image, you’ll see pink and purple lines. It adds some dimension to the drawing. You can achieve this by duplicating the line-art layer, changing its colors, blending and shifting it to the side.

Finally, this is a work in progress. I was watching my dog fall asleep, and couldn’t help but notice that she ignores her bed and opts for the bare floor instead.

My main focus in this one was achieving an imperfect yet polished line-art look, practicing composition and working with a monotone palette. How much detail can I add with black, grey and white?

I love looking at storyboards because of this. Their focus lies on visual storytelling, and they provide a skeleton of sorts for animators. Their drawings tend to be so dynamic and expressive, while being mostly stripped of color.

O.K. K.O: Let’s Be Heroes!, an animated show that aired on Cartoon Network, has some amazing storyboards and is a constant source of inspiration for me.

Those are all the drawings for now; it’s always fun to branch out into new techniques and subjects.

Have you guys tried anything new recently? Any unexpected sources of inspiration?

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