Sketching Tips 9) Sketching Living Creatures

Sketching any member of the animal kingdom is tricky. That includes human beings. The very thing that makes living creatures so interesting - their life and energy – is exactly the same thing that makes them so difficult to sketch. Living creatures often move. This creates huge problems for the urban sketcher, and as with human figures, it does necessitate finding a method which works for you.

Here’s some things for you to consider doing:-

* Cheating

OK, I say that tongue in cheek. Basically, by this I mean using a photo. Now, as well should all know by now, if you sketch from a photo, however nice it may turn out to be , it isn’t an urban sketch. I want to stress this now. In my opinion, if you possibly can sketch something from life, then you should. Intrinsically a sketch made this way has far more value than a sketch of a photograph, which is at least a stage further back removed from life. However, sometimes you are just not going to have the opportunity to sketch a particular creature from life, and I freely admit that sketches such as these next few were made from photographs:-

The attraction of sketching from a photo is obvious. The animals have been caught by the camera in a particular stance, and they aren’t going to move from that stance. I’m unlikely to encounter most of them without going to zoos or in the case of the Komodo Dragon, taking what would probably the most expensive sketching expedition of my life. 

* Sketching stuffed animals

Is this cheating? Not as long as you’re clear when you’re writing down what it is that you’ve sketched. Now, personally I’m not a great fan of taxidermy. But I have to say that it enabled me to make this sketch of a coelacanth (ironically a ‘living fossil’) in the Zoological Museum in Kaunas in Lithuania. 

Due to the conditions required to keep a coelacanth alive, it’s highly unlikely I’m ever going to see one living, so I don’t feel too guilty about sketching this one. 

* Sketching creatures that don’t move around a lot.

Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce you to my cat, Hero. 

Yes, Hero is a gorgeous looking long haired black and white cat. He can sit in the same position for hours . . . until you try to sketch him. So even with a rarely moving creature like Hero, I find I have to use a technique to capture him. The thing that a creature like Hero is most likely to move is his head. So that’s where I would start. Eyes first. Then outlines of nose, mouth and shape of the head. No shading at this stage – once the outlines are in, then you can capture the shading gradually. In the space of 10 – 15 minutes Hero is going to look away three or four times, so each time he turns back to me I just keep adding a little more, building the picture. I know that unless he gets up to leave, I can easily sketch in his body when I’m happy with the head.

Basically, this is the method I would use to capture any creature. If you look at this one:-

It should illustrate the point. These guys came barrelling down my street one Saturday, in the opposite direction. There were a huge number of them. So when they started coming back, I knew that a lot of them would be coming past. I quickly sketched the moving parts – in this case the front legs of one horse – the back legs of another, and the body and heads of the next 3 or 4. Then another composite of the guys riding in the buggy. Now, when there’s only one of the creatures you want to sketch, the principle still works the same, as long as it doesn’t run off completely.

Whether you’re sketching people or creatures, even when they’re moving they do tend to repeat the same movements, and this fact is your friend. So if we take this sketch I made one lunchtime :-

It pretty much illustrates this point. Both of these were moving their heads about quite a bit, but would repeat pretty much the same position as they did so. I didn’t even start on the bodies until the heads were done, and this worked pretty well. 

Sketching living, moving creatures is hard, and it can be very frustrating. However, if you want to improve your sketching, it really is wonderful for training your hand-eye coordination, and also helping you to loosen up, and get a decent impression of what you’re sketching more quickly and with fewer marks on your paper. 

A few random points:-

·       Make the distinction in your own mind between an urban sketch and a detailed animal sketch. If the animal you’re sketching is just a part of a moment – for example, like the horses and buggies barrelling down my street – then please try to resist the temptation to photograph it now then sketch it later. Sketch it now, then you won’t need to photograph it. On the other hand, if you sketch a photograph of an exotic creature you would never normally meet, well you’re not going to try to pass it off as an urban sketch made the time that you actually met this creature, so I can’t see any issue with that.

·       Sketching a living creature from life – start off by sketching in the parts of the animal that are most likely to move. Go for quick outlines, and you can worry about shading later on.

·       Don’t panic if the creature moves. As likely as not it will repeat the same position if you’re patient. This won’t always happen, but this is what makes it so rewarding when it does.

·       You may have the opportunity to make a composite sketch of two or more members of the same species, so don’t despair.

·       When you first start sketching creatures from life – I’d start out trying to sketch it as quickly as you possibly can in as few marks on the paper. If you work on speed from the start, accuracy will come later.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------