David Williams - Idiot’s Guides: Drawing Pets

Drawing
Pets

by David Williams

A member of Penguin Random House LLC

For Jessie, Beau, Perry, Bean, Max, Dre, and Chloe.

Publisher: Mike Sanders

Associate Publisher: Billy Fields

Executive Acquisitions Editor: Lori Cates Hand

Development Editorial Supervisor: Christy Wagner

Cover Designer: Laura Merriman

Book Designers: Rebecca Batchelor and Laura Merriman

Production Editor: Jana M. Stefanciosa

Layout: Ayanna Lacey

Proofreader: Michelle Melani

PRODUCTION, LONDON

Digital Producer: Alex Valizadeh

Senior Digital Producer: Miguel Cunha

DIGITAL OPERATIONS, DELHI

Head of Digital Operations: Manjari Hooda

Producer: Rahul Kumar

Assistant Editor: Etika Kapil

DTP Designer: Manish Bhatt

Operations Assistant: Tauhid Nasir

Introduction

Keeping a pet and caring for a living creature gives you special insight into animals and how you can draw them more realistically. As you work through the collection of 50 pets in this book, youll learn about animals; discover how you can see shapes more clearly; and translate patterns of fins, fur, and feathers into lines and shading. The lessons in this book begin with easier drawings that progressively become more difficult, and with color showing old versus new lines so you know just what to draw. Along the way, new visual challenges and techniques are presented so you end up with the right shapes and textures.

An animal becomes a pet when you make a home for it, and slowly it becomes a part of your worldand you a part of its. You consider how the animal feels and ensure it has what it needs for food, lighting, temperature, and a safe environment. Drawing a pet begins with spending some time observing it. It changes shape depending on your viewing angle. Its covering might consist of multiple textures and patterns. It has its own way of crawling, grasping, and moving that might have similarities to humans and also amazing differences.

Along with cats, dogs, and birds, Ive always had an interest in butterflies and the way they move and fly, the shapes and colors of their wings, and how they change from a caterpillar to a winged beauty in stages. My young son and I had the chance to care for two little caterpillars once. We identified them through research on the internet as the larvae of the eastern black swallowtail butterfly. We built a habitat for them and placed fennel plants and a tree branch inside based on what we learned from a book at the library. Their temporary home sat in my art studio near my easel, where I could see it while I worked, and so my son could learn firsthand about metamorphosis and how a larva becomes a butterfly. After a few days, each caterpillar had become a chrysalis and wrapped itself in a small case that hung from the branch. We talked about how the creatures were changing inside like a painting inside a studio.

We let them do what they needed to do, and we got on with our work. Weeks passed, a month went by, and then another, yet the two cases hung silently. When I wondered if something had gone wrong, I reminded myself metamorphosis sometimes takes months.

Then one day as I painted, I heard a very small sound like paper crinkling. I turned and saw a butterfly hatching from its chrysalis! I called my son over, and we watched them feed on nectar and saw their wings become strong. When they were ready, it felt good to set them free to be a part of the world outside.

The special insight you develop from caring for another living thing makes it fun to capture that personality in a drawing. I hope youre inspired as you follow the lessons and techniques in this book and that the drawings fuel your imagination for drawing your own petsor pets youd someday like to care for.

Acknowledgments

Organizing this wild romp with such a wide range of animals into concise lessons was made possible in great part by the creative team at Alpha Books. Thanks to Lori Cates Hand for giving me a fun challenge, ensuring the words ring true, and believing in the reader. High five to Christy Wagner, her creativity, and her insight into words and images, and to Laura Merriman, for making each page look great. Thanks also to my wife, Rachel, and son, Seth, for being a home for my heart and my inspiration.

About the Author

David Williams knew he wanted to be an artist at a young age when he first exhibited his drawings and paintings at an outdoor art fair. Four years later, he held his first gallery show. A graduate of the BFA Fine Arts program at Parsons: The New School in New York City, Williams instructs drawing at Ivy Tech Community College and leads watercolor and oil painting classes at his studio. He also is the author of Idiots Guides: Drawing and Idiots Guides: Zen Doodling.

No one likes a know-it-all. Most of us realize theres no such thinghow could there be? The world is far too complicated for someone to understand everything there is to know. So when you come across a know-it-all, you smile to yourself as they ramble on because you know better.

You understand that the quest for knowledge is a never-ending one, and youre okay with that. You have no desire to know everything, just the next thing. You know what you dont know, youre confident enough to admit it, and youre motivated to do something about it.

At Idiots Guides, we, too, know what we dont know, and we make it our business to find out. We find really smart people who are experts in their fields and then we roll up our sleeves and get to work, asking lots of questions and thinking long and hard about how best to pass along their knowledge to you in the easiest, most-accessible way possible.

After all, thats our promiseto make whatever you want to learn As Easy as It Gets. That means giving you a well-organized design that seamlessly and effortlessly guides you from page to page, topic to topic. It means controlling the pace youre asked to absorb new informationnot too much at once but just what you need to know right now. It means giving you a clear progression from easy to more difficult. It means giving you more instructional steps wherever necessary to really explain the details. And it means giving you fewer words and more illustrations wherever its better to show rather than tell.

So here you are, at the start of something new. The next chapter in your quest. It can be an intimidating place to be, but youve been here before and so have we. Clear your mind and turn the page. By the end of this book, you wont be a know-it-all, but your world will be a little less complicated than it was before. And well be sure your journey is as easy as it gets.

Mike Sanders
Publisher, Idiots Guides

the basics

When drawing an animal, it helps if you understand a few things about drawing techniques and also about animal bodies. An animals movement and appearance is based on its skeleton, muscles, and body coveringwhether thats fur, feathers, skin, scales, spines, or exoskeleton.

The drawing techniques I show you in the following pages help you complete the 50 pet drawings later in the book and are used frequently, like shading and erasing. Some will take a little practice, but once you learn them, youll see theyre really helpful in all kinds of drawing situations and for any animal.