Watercolor pencil drawings of animals. Course “Drawing Animals in Watercolors”

In this lesson we will tell you how to draw a cat's face watercolor pencils step by step, and we will make the background with watercolors.

Drawing technique - mixed: watercolor pencils, watercolors, thin felt-tip pens for hairs.

1. I make a sketch on watercolor paper.

2. Now you need to carefully wet the part of the paper that will be the background with water.

3. Remove excess water with a wrung out brush.

4. I put a little paint diluted with water on the brush and carefully distribute it over the damp paper.

.
5. Using a brush, you can add watercolors in those places where we want the background to be darker.

6. The background is ready for roughing.

7. Now I put away the watercolors and take watercolor pencils. In principle, I could have taken regular ones, but at that time I only had watercolor ones from the soft ones. I start working on the eyes and nose, always with the lightest color. We will always have time to darken it.

9. To make a cat come to life, I always try to work on the eyes almost immediately.

10. We begin to work on the fur, using thin strokes to follow the growth of the fur.

11. I try to make the stripes according to the shape of the body so that they emphasize the volume.

I draw the fur with thin felt-tip pens.

12. I made the mustache with thin felt-tip pens, leaving no white areas in advance.

13. Under the chin I darkened it a little with a gray pencil to create a shadow.

14. Then I regretted that I had not left my mustache white and decided to try to scratch it out.

I don’t know how well it turned out... But I think I’ve heard about such a technique.

Drawing animals in watercolors using the "wet" technique. Master class step by step with photos.

Nadezhda Yurievna Gorbova, teacher at the Children's Art School, Yaransky District Kirov region, city of Yaransk.
Description: This master class is intended for children from 9 years old and their parents, art teachers, and additional education teachers.
Purpose: educational material for further use in the composition or just for inspiration.
Target: Drawings of furry animals using the "raw" technique).
Tasks:
- consolidation of knowledge, skills, and layout skills of the depicted object on the sheet;
- consolidation of knowledge, skills, and writing skills in watercolors using the “raw” technique;
- application of the laws of color science;
- development of accuracy and observation.
Materials: watercolor paper A4 format, squirrel brushes different sizes, graphite pencil, eraser, watercolor paints, cloth, jar of water.

Progress:
Hello! I suggest you draw animals using the “raw” technique. This technique is very suitable for creating the image of furry friends).
The first riddle will help you understand who our first hero is:

From branch to branch,
Fast as a ball
Jumping through the forest
Red-haired circus performer.
So on the fly he picked a cone,
Jumped on the trunk
And he ran into the hollow.
(Squirrel)

1. Place the sheet vertically, outline with thin lines general composition, where the squirrel will be located on the sheet. The body and head of the animal are an oval.

2. Then we begin to draw the details. Under watercolor, a detailed, precise drawing is made with thin lines. The pencil should not show through the watercolor. We use the eraser carefully so as not to damage the surface of the watercolor sheet.

3. Wet the surface of the sheet clean water, you can hold it in a bucket of water for 1-2 minutes. Before you start writing, there should be no puddles of water on the sheet. We begin to paint the squirrel from light places. On the face we paint light areas with ocher (beige), ears and paws - with orange. There should be little water in the brush and a lot of paint.

4. Then we paint the dark places with different shades of brown (the squirrel’s fur is not evenly colored). We'll write the tail cold color scheme. Leave the belly white (paper color).

5. As the watercolor dries, it becomes lighter. Let's pick up a richer color and go through dark, shadowy places. We arrange the strokes according to the shape.

6. Wring out the brush well with a rag and draw the squirrel’s mustache. If the surface of the sheet is dry, you will not be able to do this. While working, you need to wet the places that you have not written yet.

7.We do finishing touches: draw an eye, claws, a tree branch. Brown has many shades, it can be reddish, purple, greenish......

The second riddle will help us understand who we have next hero.
Behind the trees, bushes,
Like a flame flashed by
It flashed, ran...
There is no smoke, no fire.

Yes.., it's a fox).
1. Place the sheet vertically. Let our heroine look at us.

2. Let's start writing orange everything except the breast and belly.

3. We will go over the shady places with red ocher. The fox's paws and ears are dark. We do not write in pure black, but with the addition of some color, for example, blue. The black color is very picturesque.

4. Then draw green eyes and a red tongue.

5. At the end, you can also paint on some details (mustache) and go through dark places.

He doesn't sleep at all at night,
Keeps the house safe from mice,
Drinks milk from a bowl
Well of course it is...

The third riddle lets us know that the next hero is a cat.
1. But we will only draw the face. Draw an oval, then outline the ears, nose, slanting eyes (note that they are located at an angle).

2. Wet a sheet of paper and draw a face in blue.

3. Draw the ears and the area around the nose and eyes with gray-violet.

4. Make the ears and around the nose darker. Then squeeze out the brush and draw long hairs on the ears (this way we show that our cat is long-haired). It is good to paint on wet colored areas with a dry squirrel brush; it absorbs water and paint well.

5. We continue to “comb” our cat. Light areas touched with a dry brush can be emphasized with a darker color.

6. Let’s draw blue eyes, highlighting them for expressiveness. Let's not forget about the mustache. Texturing can be done as long as the surface of the sheet is wet.

7. Make the nose darker and the mustache longer.
This is how the little face turned out))).

In summer he walks without a road
Near the pines and birches,
And in winter he sleeps in a den,
Hides your nose from the frost.

And this is our next hero.
1. Let's draw a bear as if he is reaching for a raspberry).
From the side of view we leave more space. Determine the main direction of the body. First, we draw the back, middle part of the body and the head in the form of an oval, then the clubbed paws.

2. We wet the sheet with clean water and paint the animal’s body with different shades of brown.

3. More rich color using strokes we show the texture of the wool.

4. Let’s draw claws, eyes, ears and…. raspberries

The depiction of insects and other animals from museum exhibits is similar to sketches of botanical subjects. The main task is to convey color and shape as accurately as possible while introducing decorative elements into the plot.

The endlessly varied colors and shapes of the wings of butterflies and moths and other flying insects are interesting to look at and draw. They shimmer with colors created by the optical fusion of tiny dots of bright pigment (which can also be seen on silk), and this effect is not easy to capture in watercolor. You can either over-intensify the brightness of such areas, or apply several patchwork layers of different colors.

NATURE DRAWINGS
You're unlikely to see a beetle and a moth side by side in a museum display, but I found it interesting to juxtapose the small size and earthy colors of the moth with the hard, shiny carapace, long thin legs and antennae of the beetle.

Materials:

• Stretched rough watercolor paper 300 g/m2
• Watercolors: lemon yellow, bluish green, turquoise, cadmium yellow, phthalocyanine green, lamp black, indigo, ultramarine blue
• Brushes: medium round

1
On rough watercolor paper, sketch the butterfly, noting the location of the bright green spots on the wings.

2
Prepare a bright poisonous green color from lemon yellow paint with a small addition of bluish green. Cover the entire butterfly with the resulting mixture, adding a little more bluish-green and applying wet on wet, moving towards the body. Using the same technique, apply turquoise to the lower part of the wing next to the body. Using turquoise and green phthalocyanine pigment, prepare a bright dark green color and apply it to the insect's body. Let dry.

3
Use lamp black, indigo and ultramarine to create a deep, velvety navy blue. Apply this mixture to the wings in stripes with bright green color showing through between them. If the blue seems too intense, apply in places with a brush. clean water and remove some of the paint. To slightly disrupt the order of the lines, apply a few dark spots on the green.

4
From lemon yellow and bluish green, prepare a darker green color. Using a thin round brush, draw very narrow horizontal vein lines over the dark stripes on the wings.

5
Using the same dark mixture as in step 3, paint the body of the butterfly, leaving certain areas of the original green color untouched. Mix natural sienna with a very small amount of lamp black and paint the hairs next to the body and antennae. Compare the pops of color on the left wing with the original colors on the right. This is proof that the intensity of colors when framed by very dark tones increases.

Tabby cat

The main problem that arises for anyone who wants to draw or depict an animal in paint is related to the inability to make the subject of the image freeze in a motionless position so that it can be properly studied. Memory resources in this regard are quite limited.

Obviously, a sleeping animal is an excellent subject for depiction, and domestic cats (they say wild cats too) spend a significant part of their lives in a state of light sleep. The only thing is, how long will you - and your viewers - be interested in compositions with a sleeping beast? In addition, the liveliness of many animals is a feature of their character, and even when they are not moving, their alertness and readiness for action can be very curious.

Drawing from a photograph is one of the options for solving the problem. Many animal painters resort to this method: when it comes to displaying harmonious, detailed and active poses, there is practically no alternative.

Yet much can be learned from quick sketches, performed in the process of observing animals in motion or in brief moments of immobility. Capturing movement with one stroke of a pencil will better convey the feeling of the animal's natural poses than any number of lifeless photographs. When working with photographs, use the selection method important information and filtering out unnecessary details.

From a distance, patches of color on an animal's fur can be transmitted to general outline, as is done when depicting foliage on trees. However, if the spots are viewed up close, as in the above portrait of a tabby cat, there is nothing left to do but go into detail.

FUR LIKE TONE
The infinite number of individual hairs that make up the coat of a furred animal should generally be considered as a combination of volumes of smooth shape. Perhaps only along the edges, as well as in places where the hairs are longer and thinner, such as on the eyebrows and mustache, there may be a need to draw them.

Materials:

• Pencil 2B
• Rough watercolor paper 300 g/m2 with acrylic primer
• Watercolors: natural sienna, lemon yellow, burnt sienna, lamp black, natural umber, ultramarine blue, magenta
• Brushes: medium and fine round

1
Using a 2B pencil, make a neat drawing of the animal. This need is associated with such close-up making a portrait.

2
Apply natural sienna as a base everywhere except areas of white fur. Use a medium round brush. The paint will also need to be applied around the mustache. Apply lemon yellow to your eyes.

3
Use a mixture of burnt sienna and lamp black to mark the top of the ears. Add more black paint and use a thin round brush to outline the eyes, filling in the pupils.

4
Now is the time to determine which areas of dark color should be depicted in detail, and which in general terms. Using a mixture of lamp black and burnt sienna, apply a contour to individual light hairs.

5
Continue working on the fur using the same colors. Where the dark markings are not as contrasting, such as on the top of the head, make them wider and more diffuse.

6
Continue applying liquid black paint with a small amount of natural umber around the lightest hairs, highlighting the lighter areas of fur above the eyes, starting with the nose and working up to the forehead.

7
The short and silky fur on the nose can be conveyed with pale gray paint, gradually moving downwards to natural sienna. Begin to carefully apply the paint around the mustache, keeping it white.

8
Apply a mix of natural umber and ultramarine (my favorite mix for shadow) around the long mustache on the right so it looks white against the dark background. At this point I also added some color spots on the left side, setting the stage for a less thorough elaboration of this part of the cat's body.

9
A bit of pale pink (heavily diluted magenta) on the tip of the nose, dark spots at the base of the mustache, additional detailing on the right side of the muzzle and attention to its overall shape - all this helped to give expression and completeness to its lower part.

10
Continue working on the dark markings on the coat, allowing some of the tones to partially blend wet into wet.

11
To highlight the spruce side of the mustache, you need to outline it. This will be somewhat more difficult to do than on the right, given that the background here is not one color. Applying transparent layers of highly diluted lamp black to these areas will help to unify and emphasize the shape.

12
Finally, use a gray-blue color and burnt sienna to depict the hairs inside the ears. Such scrupulous detailed work will require extreme control over one’s own actions. To add life to the painting in other areas, use a wide brush and work in broad strokes.

Next →

I haven’t been on the animal art blog for a long time, so for today I chose the topic “animals in watercolors.” True, some will not consider this to be animalistic, since in most works there is too much general plans, claiming to be a landscape. But still, I selected them. I liked the backgrounds and the relative minimalism in the details.

In general, the works of watercolor artist Morten E. Solberg are very wide in style and manner. Range from hyperrealism to abstraction. Oil, acrylic, watercolor. In the article I posted only watercolors, mostly with backgrounds bordering on abstraction. The latter in the animalist make Morten E. Solberg stand out well from other animalists. He is the first on a blog in this style.

• Animal artist Carl Brenders. Many of his works are pure hyperrealism in the field of depicting animals in watercolors. Ideal anatomy. Mixed media in places;
• Robert Bateman - modern classic in the field of animal photography. The article is interesting because of the material in which the artist expresses his views and creative approach.

Biography of Morten E. Solberg

Morten E. Solberg was born on November 8, 1935 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. He studied at the Cleveland Institute of Art, in the department of painting and design. After graduation, Morten Solberg entered the world of commercial art. He first worked in the art studio for American Greetings. The work suited him, he was happy. But after some time, an invitation came from the Western United States to work as an art director in another design studio and applied arts. He accepted this offer. The work proved beneficial to his creative growth, and inspired a new point of view and approach to painting. Since 1970, he began to devote all his time to painting. As a result, his art became universally recognized throughout the continent.

Morten E. Solberg himself says about his art that each painting was created in order to awaken emotional experiences in the viewer. Its goal is to create, with the help of color, composition, forms, the illusion of emotions that will transport every artist who touches the world... Drawing what you see is one thing, but feeling what you draw and conveying this feeling in a drawing is quite other.

One of the artist’s favorite subjects is Indians. He finds a special fascination in the topic of Indian culture and history. One of his great-grandmothers was Native American. The ancestors also included Norwegian whalers.

I won’t talk about awards and other things. Morten E. Solberg is a highly recognized artist. The list of achievements will be twice as long as the article itself.

Regarding family. The artist is married and has three daughters. There are also three adult sons. Strongly. It must be assumed that there are rare, very great abilities here to combine the not often well-paid profession of an artist with feeding and raising a large family. A bow to such an unselfish achievement... By the way, two of the sons are also associated with creative professions. One is an art director at a magazine, the other is an art director and senior Graphic Designer in another magazine, in another state.

Animals are one of the most favorite and difficult drawing subjects for amateur artists. The book is dedicated to one of the most popular materials - watercolor. Author, professional artist, presents information clearly and accessible. This is an interesting universal guide to drawing animals in watercolors. David Webb reveals to beginners the secrets of being free and yet realistic style and explains how to convey the character of an animal. Eight detailed lessons are dedicated to different animals and will prepare the reader for drawing any other representatives of the fauna in the most unexpected situations. Each lesson consists of exercises and step-by-step demonstrations, accompanied by instructions, beautiful illustrations And useful tips. Here you will see pets, birds, wild animals and their babies. The author's drawings are inspiring and show what you can learn.

From the author

On the pages of this guide you will find many useful tips and tips for drawing animals.

The book begins with a description of the basic watercolor techniques with recommendations on how to apply them to animal images. The first lesson is dedicated to pencil drawing and measuring proportions - this skill is important to master, no matter what genre you work in. Whether you're depicting animals, ships, buildings or people, the key to a successful painting is a quality pencil drawing, so don't skip this chapter! The following lessons are organized by difficulty level so that you can develop your skills gradually.

Each lesson is dedicated to a specific topic and is illustrated with appropriate pictures. The lessons contain exercises on measuring proportions, contour drawing, texture painting, composition, and each is completed with a step-by-step demonstration using the techniques described in the exercises.

I teach a lot and often conduct master classes, and lessons on drawing animals have always aroused the greatest interest among the audience. From my experience, I understood what difficulties beginners most often face, and in this book I tried to outline everything that is needed to overcome them.

Who is this book for?

The book will be an excellent guide for those who are just about to purchase their first box watercolor paints, and a source of valuable tips for everyone who has long been passionate about drawing and animalistic drawing.

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