Jenna Leigh Design Co.

And once more, I’m back with another installment of Life Drawing adventures! Our charcoal portraits unit has come to a close, and while it is nice to have a change of pace, I have to say I feel that it ended too soon. Maybe I’ll keep practicing those on my own…

But, for now, allow me to introduce you to wildlife sketching, the subject of our next two weeks of Life Drawing class! We will be sketching live animals, including a variety of sea and land creatures at our local AquaZoo, attempting to capture their movement and spirit through quick gestures of pen or pencil.

I’ve drawn many animals over the years (especially horses, as I had a bit of an obsession with them as a child) but have rarely ventured to try drawing them from life.

After all, a human will (hopefully) listen to you when you tell them to stop moving and be still for their portrait.

An animal will (most likely) not.

The stakes are higher, the stress is mounting, because at any given moment they could jump up, shake, stretch, sit, lie down, or move in any number of inconceivable ways.

And, inevitably, you are left with a half-finished gesture that looks nothing like the real animal.

Allow me to be vulnerable with you and share my experience from this week:

Drawing Process

I chose to draw two family pets, a cat and a dog.

Batty was rescued from a dumpster twelve years ago by people who are self-admittedly not cat people whatsoever. She is grateful to have a home (though sometimes she doesn’t act like it). She was a very confused model.

Lorelai is a four-year-old German Shepherd. She is a good girl. She tried to be a good model but was more committed to her role as guardian of the house.

I followed these two around (separately, of course) with pencil, paper, and many gestures to complete. Thus the challenge began.

Batty hid from me several times.

Lorelai kept running to the door to watch for intruders.

Here are some examples of what I managed to capture:

If you’re not familiar with it, gesture drawing is all about movement, line, and primary landmarks of structure and anatomy. It’s about finding the motion and overall proportion of a figure without actually rendering any details, and it allows you to better understand your subject before you begin a finished drawing.

Gesture always begins with line. It’s called an “action line” or “gesture line,” and it typically will be running along the length and curve of the spine, depending on the figure’s position. Here I’ve annotated a few of my gestures, showing the action lines and primary structural masses:

Reflection

These drawings stretched my observational skills and strengthened my ability to capture the pose and shape of a figure quickly—muscles I don’t exercise often enough. Though I had plenty of opportunities to sketch the animals as they lay or sat down, they would often move positions seconds after I had started drawing them, and I was not guaranteed more than a few seconds.

A nightmare for someone who likes to work with slow, methodical precision!

However, I was surprised to find that forcing myself to find the proportions of the animals quickly was not quite as difficult as I had expected. Once I had finished a few sketches, I found a rhythm of drawing the gesture line; establishing the head, hindquarters, and front and back legs; and developing the most prominent features (tails, ears) in a few minutes or less.

It seems contradictory, but drawing quickly and focusing only on major movements and masses, rather than elaborating everything in detail, seemed to help me with overall accuracy!

Again I find myself coming to the conclusion that I need to look more at the bigger picture, at all the parts connected as a larger whole, rather than using my magnifying-glass approach.

Everything makes more sense when you see it in context.

Everything!

We’ll see how I do at the AquaZoo.