Animals to Draw, photos by Lynn Cohen

We just saw these two rescued birds, the great horned owl and the red tail hawk!

Thought some of us might like to draw them for the last few days of this theme! 

Animals, Lynn Cohen

Today Facebook brought me this drawing I'd done four years ago of our now cat Henry V, who we rescued Ten years ago in Mendocino, CA when he was 3 or 4 years old! He's a big cat, an opinionated cat, and an important member of our family!  He doesn't have as much orange in him as this picture shows, but some, he's mostly grey and black! He weighs 15 pounds! 

This does show you his expression well! 

Favorite Pets, "Brand", Lynn Cohen

Brand is short for "brand new kitty"! 

Brand was born to a feral cat when we lived out in the country in 1987! He loved to sleep in the great outdoors often in the curl of the neighbors big yellow lab retriever! When Fred came home from work the dog, who was old, would get up and slowly lumber over to Fred getting out of his truck and the kitten would follow behind to greet him!

When we moved into the city we took Brand with us! We tried to take his mommy too, but she refused to get in the box so we left her at the country house and the neighbors kept an eye out for her! Brand lived with us for 17 years and is buried in our backyard! 

Animals (pets) Lynn Cohen

Henry V Has been a family member almost ten years. He's got no cares about shedding on clean laundry! 

That's where I found him this morning,  so I quickly grabbed a ball point pen from a drawer and sketched him in his happy place!

Animals, feeding ducks, by Elaine (jaguarish)

Hopefully I will get around to doing a fresh work for this theme, but I just happened to sketch my kids feeding ducks recently.

Also this sculpture of an elephant on its head, "The World Turns" by Michael Parekowhai:

Animals, a Lobster by Joan Tavolott

Not everyone sketches their dinner, but I did last night. This guy was 7.11 pounds. 

Just so you can get some sense of his size here is a photo of the two of us.

Wildlife, magpie mini-sketch, by Elaine (jaguarish)

While I was out and about today sketching, a magpie stopped by to check me out.  Just as I began to sketch him, he flew away to investigate other interesting things.  So this is half-reality and half-memory/imagination, otherwise all I'd have is one wing!

Animals, The Giraffe by Joan Tavolott

Here is my last contribution to the animals theme. This giraffe was done from a photo reference by "jerri rise" in the Wet Canvas Reference Library.

Animals, Marvel the Aussie, Penny Stewart

This is Marvel, short for Marvelous Aussie.  I painted Tammy's Australian Shepherd Dog this time  5x5 watercolor and pen on paper.  Last week I did it in acrylics.  Very loose WC and pen.  Last animal of the month I think. 

Painting For Sale on Ebay Auction

Original Photo Reference

Animals, Rose and Amelia, Jez Eden

Two silly pieces as my last offering for the animals theme.  First of all there's Rose with what I call one of my doodle doggerel verses:

Marker Pens on pre-painted sketchbook background - Jez

THE CAMEPHANT

She's a Camephant and her name is Rose,

Four humps, twisty tail and an oversized nose.

Rose lives in the desert as everyone knows

Where the land is dry and nothing grows,

And she wears her boots wherever she goes -

She just can't bear getting sand between her toes!

And then there is Amelia the cow, sketched on my I-Phone and the words added with an app called StampIt:

Animals "Hello Panda" by Elisa Choi

Ahhh.. panda. Need I say more? I bet he is your favorite too. Hehe :) I did a step by step at my blog if you wish to see. Take care!

Animals, Chickens, Ann Hyde

Inspired by an online friends chickens....

Pencil
Watercolour
Sailor Calligraphy pen

Animals, Mickey Mouse, Joan Tavolott

Since "stuffed" animals are allowed I couldn't resist sketching Mickey.

He was a gift from my hubby somewhere along the line, and was the first stuffed animal I had since I was a kid. I used a combination of watercolors, Inktense pencils and ink.

Animals, Big Ted by Margaret Coote

Since "stuffed" animals were part of this theme, I thought I'd draw my trusty teddy bear, with me now for over 3 decades. After a few minutes, though, I felt I wasn't doing him justice and got frustrated…but I thought I should post this anyway, since I'd done it, and it's not his fault that I didn't complete it!

PS There is a "Little Ted", but "Big Ted" got his name before she came along, not sure how or why...

Animals, Big Bird, Jez Eden

Big Bird, Pastel Pencils - Jez 

I don't like using pastels, even though I love other people's pastel paintings, but this was my attempt at using some pastel pencils I came across in one of the studio drawers.  It's been ongoing for a few days and I managed to finish it when we got back from the hospital this afternoon.

He's called Big Bird because I don't know what he is, he doesn't look like an ostrich with that strange bulge on his neck, and I don't think he's an emu.  Whatever he is, he was very fierce and didn't like me taking a photo of him, and came at the open car window with tremendous speed - I just managed to wind the window up as his beak hit the window.  My heart was thumping.  It's an old photograph, I took in the local safari park many years ago.

I don't know how to use these pastel pencils and there were not many colours, certainly not the colours I wanted so I did the best I could with combining the colours we had.  Any tips on using pastel pencils would be appreciated, just in case I make myself use them again.

Animals, Rabbit by Melisa McCurley

I played with my little set of 12 Derwent Drawing Pencils this morning. I love the softness of these pencils. My set is just earth tones but I'd love to have more colors. I'm not sure if they even come in other colors. The reference photo was from this weeks WDE at wetcanvas, hosted by missswiss.

Animals, Her majesty, the cat by Karla B

Animals "Blushing Pink" by Elisa Choi

Sometimes I thought that animals are difficult to paint maybe because they look quite intimidating. But just like anything else we are the artists and therefore we can simplify things. I am painting another of my favorite animals which is the flamingo. The colors are really striking because it's pink and they're beautiful.

Also I would like to write a bit about Ann's sentiments with regards to why quick sketches turn out ok and why the ones we labour on turn out wrong. I think it happens to most of us. I enjoy quick sketches in pen because it's liberating and I don't worry about mistakes and magically they turn out better than I thought. But working on something like for a commission piece or maybe we want to tackle a more complicated subject for example intimidates us and make us very cautious with our strokes that it often inhibit our creativity and therefore the result is not always satisfying. 

I think the best thing we can do is to remind ourselves why we are doing this. And for most us it is for the fun and pleasure and creativity it brings. If we set our minds to the intention of why we paint or whatever we do and get pass the worries and fears and perfection then perhaps we will begin to enjoy. How to get pass the negative? Do some warm up paintings and quick sketches. Easier said than done but let's try. :)

Animals, sculptures, by Elaine (jaguarish)

Just for fun - here are some thumbnail sketches of animal sculptures from my notebook / journal.

This first one is from a series I did while walking through town to meet up with the Urban Sketchers group in Brisbane.  The "bat in lamp" (bottom right corner of page) is one of a series along Adelaide Street which includes a goanna, snake and possum.  I used to walk from Central Station along the street with my daughter when she was in a stroller or sling, taking her to child care at City Hall, and we would look at the sculptures along the way.  I love the unexpected nature of them, and that you only notice them if you are looking up.

This next one is a trio of kangaroos sculpted by Christopher Trotter, from found metal implements.  You have to imagine the colour -- a darkened bronze.  Two are grazing and one is relaxing on the bench (couldn't fit him on the page).  I love his work!

This last one comprises three views of a crane netsuke (a tiny Japanese carving, traditionally used as a stopper  at the end of a silk rope for the handbag hung from an obi, which in turn is the belt of a kimono...)  I bought this netsuke at the LA County Museum of Art (it is a reproduction).  The brown marks muddling the page are from me playing around with stamps...

Animals, Bears, By Rob Kulas

I did a quick sketch of one of the many animal decorations in the Cabin we rented recently.

Bears

Pitt Pens in sketchbook.