Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals: A Mixed-Media Workshop with Carla Sonheim

August 22, 2011

Today is the day I planned to start writing this book, and I had wanted to get a strong start first thing this morning. But its eight hours later, and this is just the second sentence out. And its because of my pet, Natalie.

Instead of taking my son to an appointment and writing in the waiting room with the laptop as planned, I took Wes to the dentist and a very sick cat to the vet and forgot my laptop at home in the rush to get out the door.

One morning appointment morphed into an all-day affair, and by the time I got home (4:30 p.m.) I was too tired/spent/mad to go into the office. I was also many dollars poorer.

As we were driving home, Wes, sixteen, was disturbed by the amount of money I had just spent.

He then asked, What do pets DO?

Ha.

Well, what DO they do???

I dont know. But I do know that plunking down a small fortune for some X-rays, some fluids, and some assurance she didnt have kitty cancer was, if not worth it, an acceptable price for what she does for our family:

She greets us at the door when we come home after school/work.

She gets her tail all up in a fuzz when shes happy.

She occasionally curls up on our laps.

She sleeps with or near us, snoring softly.

She meows loudly, and often, out of hunger, boredom, or desire to drive us crazy.

She makes an excellent zombie kitty.

Not to mention, shes so soft!

Anyway, the point is, I love animals. And lately thats all Ive been painting and drawing, mostly from my imagination, but based on a lot of looking at animals: Natalie, of course, but also dogs at the park, iguanas at the pet store, and orangutans at the zoo. If theres an animal around, Im looking at it. They are so interesting to me, each and every one!

Pablo Picasso once said, I put in my paintings everything I like. In short, I draw and paint animals because I like them.

And I suspect you probably do, too.

about this book

I love very much to draw animals. Josef Albers

I didnt really pick up a pencil until I was thirty and well into life. I didnt go to art school even though I had artistic leanings; the adults and climate of the time just didnt provide enough encouragement for a person like me to buck convention.

(Ironically, I ended up with a B.A. in history, and theres nothing very practical you can do with that!)

Anyway, ten years later I started taking life drawing classes at a community college and also remember taking a watercolor class over a period of five Wednesdays at a local art league.

We had instructions when we signed up to bring several photo references of things we would like to paint. I brought some magazine images of elephants.

But when the class started, everyone else pulled out photographs of flowers. Flowers were everywhere, and I felt embarrassed and stupid: what was I doing in a watercolor class, anyway? I couldnt even pick the right subject matter!

While the other students made their first marks, I made plans with the door. But the instructor noticed my hesitation and asked what was wrong. I confessed that I just didnt want to paint flowers.

She asked me to show her the images I had brought. When I pulled out my elephants, she laughed and said, Paint what you want to paint!

Phew!

My first book, Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists: 52 Creative Exercises to Make Drawing Fun, shared both realistic and stylized ways of drawing many different subjects. I intended it to be a survey book and hoped that with the many drawing styles presented, it would hold something interesting for many people.

This book is more specific to my preferred way of working: more stylized, from imagination, and with animals as my chosen subject matter.

Besides being just fun to have around, pets teach us how to be.

Cats give us confidence to ask for what we want, and dogs help us remember the other guy. Hamsters remind us that the small and furry are pretty cute. Horses are gentle creatures, but if they step on your foot, watch out: theyre heavy! And rats remind us that creepy tails do not mean a thing.

Wild animals teach us, too. Birds give us the hope that we can fly, if only metaphorically, and elephants remind us that its okay to be gray and wrinkly. Ants remind us that a lot can be done with teamwork, and that theres no excuse not to carry your own weight.

Anteaters are good at reminding us that wonky nose parts (or other parts) just make us uniquely us, and vultures remind us that ugly can actually be kind of cool. Zebras remind us that fashion is fun sometimes, and giraffes remind us to not take ourselves so seriously.

And fish remind us that truth is stranger than fiction. (Have you been to an aquarium lately? You should go.)

Drawing and painting can teach us, too. The things Ive learned from drawing have applied directly to approaching all other areas of my life, including relationships, exercise, work, and handling difficult circumstances.