Just in case people who are following me on here aren't subscribed to me on YouTube, I thought I'd start uploading my art video tutorials here again, so they can see them. On top of that, I've made still image/written tutorials to accompany the videos, just in case you want to get the gist of them really quickly.
Most of my videos are recordings of me working through the artwork, so you might want to scrub through them to get a better idea of how the drawing was made. Image tutorials always make things look overly simple, which is why I think that video tutorials are generally better. But you have both to choose from here, so go with whichever you find most helpful! Click the images to see them at full size. And be sure to check out some of my other cat tutorials!
Cute Kitten
1. Make a circle for the head and draw the center line. The body is an oval shape.
2. Block out the muzzle and eye and ear placement.
3. Detail the muzzle and eyes.
4. Add in the fur and eyebrow ridges.
5. Detail the ears.
6. Add some simple values and a couple whiskers.
Grumpy Cat
1. Make a circle for the head and draw the center line.
2. Block out the muzzle, neck, and eye and ear placement.
3. Detail the mouth, nose, and eyes.
4. Add in the fur, eyebrow ridges, and lines to define the sides of the muzzle.
5. Detail the ears and neck.
6. Add some simple values.
Both of these were drawn in MyPaint.
Leave a comment if you have any questions! I hope these were helpful!
Now that I've got the dog site up and running, I thought it would be fun to cover something totally opposite to dogs: cats! This week is cat week. I'm going to cover how to draw cat heads/faces, paws, and bodies, then wrap the week up with a best of cat art post.
If you haven't taken a look at my "How to Draw Animals" post, you might want to. I also made some how to draw cats video tutorials. You may find some helpful tips in those that you can apply to your cat drawings.
How to Draw Cat Faces/Heads Tutorial
Art Type: Traditional or Digital
I'm Using: Photoshop CS4 and an Intuos 4
I used references to guide these drawings. I suggest using references as well, especially if you're drawing an animal that you haven't practiced with much, or if you want a realistic style.
You can click the images below to see them larger.
How to Draw a Cat Face/Head- Front View
Draw an oval (ovals are more accurate representations of cat skulls than circles).
Draw the guide lines. The inside edges of the eyes connect to the inside edges of the ears.
Either half erase your guide drawing, or draw on a new layer if working digitally. Add oval eyes with a bit of a slant near the inside corners. Don't forget the tear ducts.
Add the nose and muzzle. Lines on the side of the muzzle help keep it from looking flat.
Add the ears.
Add the fur and details like the brow ridges and shading on the eyes. Erase the guide drawing. You can add whiskers if you want, but they are not necessary and can make your drawing look more cluttered if done wrong.
How to Draw a Cat Face/Head- Side View
Draw an oval.
Add the guide lines. The inside edge of the eye connects to the inside edge of the ear. Don't make the muzzle too long or it will look like a dog.
Either half erase your guide drawing, or draw on a new layer if working digitally. Add the eye and tear duct.
Add the muzzle. Let it transition gracefully into the forehead, giving the cat a smooth profile.
Add the ears. Notice how the other ear is offset due to perspective.
Add the fur and details like the brow ridges and shading on the eyes.
Erase the guide drawing.
How to Draw a Cat Face/Head- 3/4 View
Draw an oval.
Add the guide lines. At this angle, it is very important to get the horizontal and vertical guide lines right, or your cat may not wind up at the angle you want. The inside edges of the eyes connect to the inside edges of the ears.
Add the eyes and draw in the side of the face. You can't see the tear duct on the right eye due to the angle.
Add the muzzle. Keep a square shape in mind as you draw it. This will make it wind up looking properly 3-dimensional.
Add the ears. Notice the detail on the inner edge of the left ear (your right as you face it). This adds to the realism and is one of the cool shapes you can find in reference photos.
Add the fur and details like the brow ridges and shading on the eyes.
Erase the guide drawing.
I hope this was helpful! Tomorrow I'll cover how to draw cat paws.
Hi, everyone! Today I'm going to talk about how to draw animals. This will be something of a general overview, because I plan on doing many more posts that focus on more specific things, like paws, eyes, etc. (I also don't plan to get into shading today). I'm planning next week to do a series of posts about how to draw dogs and other canines.
Art Type: Traditional or Digital
I'm Using: MyPaint and an Intuos 4
Examples of my drawings
I suggest that, even if you love drawing a single type of animal, you occasionally draw other types as well. I usually just draw canines and felines, but I find drawing a giraffe or walrus once in a while to be a fun change. It also helps to keep me a more versatile artist. You should also try to stay away from just drawing animals' faces all the time (this is something I have to constantly remind myself). Art is so much more fun when you can work with full-body poses, and there are a lot of fun shapes in animals' bodies (I particularly love to draw paws). But enough talking, let's get to the how-to.
Get a good reference, not too small or blurry. Remember you can use Ctrl-+ to zoom in and Ctrl- - to zoom out in web browsers. I have a dual-monitor setup, so I always have a reference off to the side. I tend to work pretty directly from reference, but the more you practice an animal (and the more cartoony your style) the less you'll have to glance at references. You should still start out learning from references, though, to learn some basic anatomy and proportioning.
Identify the basic shapes of the animal. Some animals' heads are like circles, others are like ovals. Shoulders look like kidney beans. Some muzzles look square, others more cylindrical. Take a good look at your reference and find the shapes.
Start drawing with the line of action for full-body drawings(it's usually made up of the spine, head, and tail). This is the direction in which the animal's action/energy appears to be going, like what direction it's jumping in.
Add on a skeleton made of basic shapes(you can skip this if you've got some animal drawing experience). Circles/ovals for heads, ovals for ribcages, sticks for arms, and circles for paws will get you started.
Check your proportions. That's why you start simple, so you won't go crazy if you have to erase a lot. Make sure the head isn't too small or large, stuff like that.
Flesh out the form with more shapes. Tapering shapes for arms, wedges for thighs, etc. You shouldn't have any body parts depicted by sticks now.
Check your proportions one more time. You don't want to be an hour into a piece and realize the body is too short.
Make your blocking out drawing less opaque. If you're drawing on paper, rub over it with a kneaded eraser to lighten your lines. If you're drawing digitally, just lower the opacity of the layer you're on.
Make the detailed drawing. If you're drawing digitally, do this on a new layer. Look for changes in the planes of the animal. Some areas will be obvious, others you will have to learn to see. The more you draw animals, the better you get at finding all their little details. You don't have to go super detailed when making a line drawing. Too many details can make your drawing look too busy, and many subtle things are better represented with shading than with line. Usually you'll add the most subtle details when you shade or color your work.
Clean the drawing. If you're working traditionally, erase all those unnecessary guide lines from when you blocked out the drawing. If you're working digitally, hide unnecessary layers. Look for stray lines, and erase when necessary. You don't have to clean it too much. If you wanted to use the piece as line-art, you'd want to ink over it anyway.
I've recorded myself drawing a three different animals. Take a look at the videos (feel free to just scrub through them, you don't have to watch every second of them if you don't want). I've provided some commentary for each of them, and a link to the image I referenced. After reading and watching all of this, try drawing what I drew, keeping in mind the 10 steps above.
Similar things can be seen in this video where I show how to draw a young lion's arms and paws. Pay attention to how I don't allow my blocking lines to constrain me. If I feel something needs to be bigger, longer, or shorter, I draw it that way. The more you work like this, the less often your blocking will be incorrect and you can stay within your guides.
But what if you're drawing an animal that you are not very familiar with? Well, you approach it the same way. You can see how in this video, my blocking shapes are much more scribbley. That's because I'm not as sure of myself, so I go over my lines more as I fix them. But I go through the same steps as in the last two videos, and the end looks fine. With more kangaroo practice, it would look even more similar to the reference photo. Also, it doesn't hurt to spend more time with a piece if you need to. All of these videos were pretty short because the program I was using to record them (Windows Expression Encoder 4) only gave me 10 minutes per video, so I had to draw fast.
Today's sketches
Reccomended Reading: "The Art of Animal Character Design." I got this last Christmas and love it! It's the only art book I have that I've read all the way through. At first glance, it seems to be mainly full of pictures with very little text. The truth is that David Colman gives all sorts of wonderful animal drawing and designing tips in a good concise amount of text, letting his art drive home his points. The beginning has some especially helpful tips about animal drawing, including the most difficult type of animal drawing: drawing from moving animals. I highly suggest it.
So that's it! I hope this overview of how to draw animals was helpful! Next week, I'll do a much more detailed series of tutorials all about how to draw canines (one of my favorite subjects). Feel free to leave comments and questions, and to link me to your work!
.jpg "How to Draw Sketch Grumpy Cat Art Tutorial")
.jpg "How to Draw Animals")
I got this last Christmas and love it! It's the only art book I have that I've read all the way through. At first glance, it seems to be mainly full of pictures with very little text. The truth is that David Colman gives all sorts of wonderful animal drawing and designing tips in a good concise amount of text, letting his art drive home his points. The beginning has some especially helpful tips about animal drawing, including the most difficult type of animal drawing: drawing from moving animals. I highly suggest it.
