How To Draw Animals In Pen And Ink

Straight Sketching with Pen and Ink: Drawing Birds and Animals from Life

March 21, 2011

The full postal service is thoughts on sketching birds directly with pen and ink.

110306APuffins Left: Direct ink and watercolor sketches of Puffins, made from life at Como Zoo. Page size approximately 8 x 8 inches in a handmade journal of now defunct cartoon paper. Staedtler Pigment Liner .3 pen with washes of Daniel Smith watercolors (using a Niji watercolor brush).

I'm on a campaign to get more people to sketch directly with pen and ink—with no pre-drawing with pencil, no erasing, and no fear. (See besides yesterday'due south post on drawing people directly with pen and ink.)

On March half-dozen, 2011 I went to a sketch out at Como Zoo. I go to Como and sketch about twice a calendar month by myself. I was looking forward to seeing other sketchers. Sadly I went all day without seeing a single soul who was sketching—just I did become to catch upwardly with people at the end of the solar day so there was some group fun to be had!

In the mean fourth dimension I had the puffins to cheer me. And I have to say that puffins really, really practice cheer me. There is something bouyant nigh their personalities and spirits that transcends their physical bouyancy.

Let's go to it. Remember that billed cap I had you lot wearing yesterday. Wear it again today. The animals and birds might not care that you take it on but you lot desire it for reducig glare and maintaining focus, and also blocking out curious bystanders. (At least a billed cap functions that way if you lot're brusque—if y'all're tall, heck you're on your own there.)

Stand in front of your subjects and watch them for near 5 to 10 minutes. This may seem like an eternity. If it does then maybe yous need to rethink your life as a nature sketcher. Think of it this way, if you love something it is delightful to gaze at it. Well I'm advocating agile gazing—all the time you lot're gazing you're also observing how the various parts of the whole get together. Blot your subject.

After you've watched your subject at a zoo for almost 5 to 10 minutes you'll accept a sense of patterned beliefs, favorite paths of travel, favorite perches, etc. Decide how you want to utilise your page. Do you want to do one large sketch or several smaller sketches? Here I decided to do the latter. I also decided to arrange them in a clockwise society starting in the top left and leaving the bottom left for overheard dialog and notes to myself.

Get-go sketching. Apply the same method as described yesterday—wait, mark, look again, right. Work direct with pen and ink and don't do whatsoever pre-sketching with pencil. Make light strokes if you lot aren't sure, assuming strokes if you are. Practice will exist your friend. You can work confidently even on the nigh pitiful of messes, sure in the cognition that you lot are learning and your next effort will exist meliorate—if you work with attention and focus.

If your subject moves, wait and watch. Chances are he'll return to the same position and yous can begin sketching again. If he doesn't, beginning a new sketch in a new position somewhere else on the page. Now I guarantee he'll return to the first position then tin you. Work from ane to the other as necessary. Sketching birds from life is every bit much nigh waiting as it is about sketching. You will be rewarded with space nuances of delight equally yous watch and so don't worry. Birds are exquisite from any angle.

Wait for and describe (with your pen lines) the negative spaces you observe. These volition capture the graphic symbol of the bird and often requite it weight and balance, such every bit when you nail the negative space between the legs and give the bird substance and natural poise. (I'm not proverb these sketches do whatever of that, I'm just pointing out the goal!)

When you have completed your sketch you can add watercolor washes as I have in the kickoff sketch on this page. I employ a Niji waterbrush and a small children'south palette I've filled with Daniel Smith Watercolors (run into the two modest palettes in the center of the photograph at this link).

One time you get some color and shading down it's time to complete other sketches on the same page in the same fashion. Hither I tried to capture different postures. Color wasn't important in the remaining two sketches both because the birds moved just also because I already had color info on the starting time bird. In the third drawing, merely the yellow of the anxiety was an important memory particular for me, and so I painted that.

Over again, write notes almost anything that will ensure you have consummate data on your subject or your experience of the twenty-four hour period. Here I take a question to myself about drinking water for puffins—after all these years I never thought to inquire anyone because I was simply so overjoyed by their presence. Also I wrote downwardly overheard dialog. The things parents say to children at zoos are really amazing. The folio also contains observational notes about the individual birds.

I engagement and time all my entries. In the wild it volition tell y'all when you can return and discover the same beliefs. In a zoo it will tell you when to return to avert or catch feeding time, etc.

When yous make multiple sketches like this remind yourself it isn't about coming habitation with perfect sketches—it'due south about honing your observational skills. Give yourself the opportunity to leave perfection behind and observe and learn and practice.

Source: https://rozwoundup.com/2011/03/direct-sketching-with-pen-and-ink-drawing-birds-and-animals-from-life.html

Posted by: brittfecid1988.blogspot.com