Animals illustrations: 7 steps to master for beginner artists

Whether you are a digital artist or someone who practices the traditional art method of drawing on paper, drawing animals is an art skill everyone wants to perfect. After all, who doesn’t love furry beings?

As an artist, you can take the love a little further by bringing your furry friends to life through your art. Be it your pet or a wild animal that you consider to be your spirit animal, once you have mastered the art of drawing animals you can create whatever animals illustrations you want on your preferred canvas. In case you are looking for inspiration on how to create animals illustrations as a beginner artist, you have come to the right place.

At illustAC, we love seeing the work of young digital artists and illustrators- especially when it comes to the drawings of animals. illustAC is specifically created for illustrators around the globe to share their work. We host a number of talented artists whose work is featured on our website for companies to download and use for their website, promotional campaigns, blogs, or social media.

Most of the content on IllustAC is available for free. Each time a piece of art is downloaded by a visitor, the artist gets some rewards. You can check out the platform, enter keywords on the search bar, and explore the world of creative illustrations through IllustAC. We currently have more than 7 million registered users and the number continues to grow every day.

If you are a beginner artist who is still discovering and exploring various types of art forms, we have got you covered with these top tips on how to draw animals realistically. If you are already an established artist looking to enhance your animal drawing skills, you can also follow these tips to become a master of your art. Without further ado, we present the top tips on how to draw animals.

animals illustrations illustAC
Cute animals illustrations – illustAC

Animals illustrations: The more you observe, the more you learn 

Each unique animal has a different pattern on its body, moves in a different style, and comes with its overall personality. If you are someone who does not spend much time around animals, you might be amazed by how much you can learn about a particular animal simply by observing.

The environment an animal is put in, the temperature and climate of the place, and other different circumstances lead to the display of different natures of the animal. While cats are more comfortable in the warmth of a subterranean area, wolves put their best paw forward in the cold of the harshest winters.

That does not necessarily mean that you have to go spend time in the wild or in extreme climates as an artist simply to observe the behavior and movement of an animal. You can spend time watching videos, looking at photographs, and taking references from other animal artists to get started on drawing animals illustrations yourself.

Start by making animals your model

Maybe you have a dog. Or your friend recently adopted a cat. Maybe there is an aquarium you can visit in your city. Or maybe you take a weekend trip to the nearest wildlife sanctuary. The point is, as you begin drawing animals illustrations as an artist, it is best you use animals as your model.

Yes, it can be a bit difficult to keep the animal still as you paint. The best way to ensure that you take your own sweet time for your drawing while using an animal as your model is to roughly draw shapes to mark their features.

Say you draw ovals for the face and body, rectangles for their legs, circles for eyes, a triangle for a nose, and two for their ears. This way you can set the basic framework of an animal in its natural glory and refine the details when you have more time. Some artists also prefer drawing an animal when it is sleeping but that would require a lot of patience and time.

cute cats - animals illustrations illustAC
Animals illustrations – illustAC

Also, you can take multiple photographs of an animal while it goes about doing its regular activities and use those photographs as the reference. But then, it is advised to put those photographs to use as soon as possible so that the moment is fresh in your memory and can inspire the best of your creativity.

Break it down to the basics to make it a bit easier

Building upon the last point that we mentioned, the best way to practice animals illustrations is by dividing its features into simple shapes. The body of an animal is complex with different types of curves, spinal definition, and skin/fur patterns. It is impossible to get the detailing perfect on the first try.

As a digital artist just starting out on the venture of animals illustrations, the first thing you need to do is familiarise yourself with the basic shapes for each animal. Cheetahs have a different build than wolves and alligators move differently than tortoises. What are the key shapes that you can use to draw each individual species? Once you have mastered that knowledge and skill, it will become easier for you to draw animals faster and better.

dogs and cats avatar illustrations illustAC
Animals illustrations – illustAC

Once you have got control of the outline, you can go back and fill in the details later. The next is how you want to illustrate the animal. Is it sleeping or walking? Is it getting ready to pounce for a hunt or is it stretching after a meal? These are the details that you can bring into your art eventually to make it more realistic and drive the emotions of the viewer.

Eraser is your best friend

Of course, you are going to make mistakes while trying to draw a complex subject like animals. The important thing is to not let the mistakes derail you from your final objective, which is to draw realistic animals. Even seasoned artists make mistakes and rectify them to create a final masterpiece. Mistakes are a crucial part of the learning stage, especially when you are a beginner artist exploring a new art form that is out of your comfort zone. The best way to draw animals is to keep a loose hand while trying to capture their movement and body language. While doing that, it is inevitable to make mistakes.

As an artist, it is very important to have control over your strokes. But too much limitation on your free hand can add limits to your creativity as well which can reflect on your art. This is why use the eraser unabashedly while setting on a journey to learn how to draw animals. As long as you give complete artistic freedom to your creativity even while using references and photographs, the final art is going to turn out great regardless of the mistakes.

Proportions matter more than you think

What differentiates a lioness from a cat and a wolf from a dog? Proportion, body size, and surrounding environment. If you are drawing a portrait of a single dog sleeping on a garden deck, you can keep it at the center and add more detailing around its fur and features. However, if you are drawing a tropical background with exotic plants and birds, the proportions have to be smaller with lesser details.

tropical exotic birds and plants background illustAC
Animals illustrations – illustAC

Depending on your subjects, the crowd, and the environment that you want to display in your drawing, you can play around with the proportions until you are happy with the final result. Spacing, composition, and proportion define how the audience looks at the image and how easily can they navigate their eye through the various elements you have presented before them. With a lot of practice and patience, you can get a better grasp of judgment on how to place your subjects, what are elements you want to surround them with, and how much detailing is actually required to make the final image look realistic and great.

Play around with light and shadow

Using light and shadow in the form of a white color palate or dark-tone color range can increase the look and feel of the overall drawing. Notice and try to replicate how light bounces off the skin of a jaguar or how the shadows of tree branches fall on the body of a sleeping elephant. These additional details can help make your painting look as realistic as possible and drive up the emotion factor in the audience. This is a skill that takes a fair amount of time to practice as you need to have a certain understanding of how to recreate the light and shadow effect in your drawings.

It is best to create the image of the animal first in its habitat and then do with white, yellow, or gold tones to create the effect of sunlight or natural light. To balance it with shadows, use dark brown, grey, or charcoal black depending on the time of the day you want to recreate and also the actions you want to show. The game of light and shadow also adds a certain depth and personality to the drawing and makes you appear more experienced and seasoned than your peers.

How to draw the different features of an animal? 

Eyes

It’s critical to observe where the eyes are located inside the problem’s head, along with how a long way aside they may be. keep in mind that an eyeball is spherical, and thus the attention has to display a curve wherein it is visible, rather than performing flat. How some distance into the attention socket is the eyeball? What are the shapes around the eye? Getting the ones correct is vital to seize expression and likeness.

Nose

Noses may be hard considering they have few if any, difficult edges. Draw the shape lightly and don’t make a tough area unless you’re certain you can see one. you might need to do a look at simply the nose earlier than doing the complete head to make sure you recognize its structure. Is it flat? How large are the nostrils? How a long way is the lowest of the nose from the top lip of the mouth? this is very crucial in getting the appearance of an animal’s head correct.

Mouth or muzzle

Like noses, maximum mammal mouths don’t have tough edges. The mouth and nostril frequently form an unmarried form: the muzzle. Does it project from the plane of the face like a bear? Is it flat like a gorilla? Is it a continuation of the top like on a horse? Does it have gentle lips like a camel or giraffe?

Ears

Be aware of how the ears are set on the head. Are they excessive on the skull or low? Bigger than the rest of the head or small? How does the animal bring their ears when not alert? Are they shallow, nearly flat, or cupped? Is there a number of furs in and around them or is the hair very short?

Conclusion

Animals are living creatures. In case you’ve been out within the wild for drawing, you may have noticed that they may be usually at the move. Taking pictures of animals’ movements will help a lot for your drawing skills. Work hard to broaden a sense of drama and existence into your photos, then turn them to great pieces of art just by practicing consecutively.

The fundamentals of animal drawing aren’t that distinctive from drawing great people illustrations. You need as many of their poses as possible to observe, study, and practice.

Start with simple and clean sketches. Then polish them little by little by trying different perspectives, drawing styles and color palettes. It is the same whether or not you are drawing a tiger, an elephant, a bear, sea creatures or some other animals.

We hope that these tips help you in improving your skills when it comes to animals illustrations and help you achieve greater results faster. However, remember that developing any form takes time, patience, and practice and you have to keep going at it in order to master the skill.