Drawing Animal Portraits in Pen and Ink: Pen, Ink and Watercolor Sketching

By Shirish Deshpande

"We have more to learn from animals than the animals have to learn from us." –  Anthony Douglas Williams

Animals are fascinating drawing subjects for most artists. Drawing lively animal portraits brings with it another level of excitement, not to mention challenges, such as bringing out that mischievous spark in a dog's eyes or that vicious promise of impending violence in a lion's eyes. The facial proportions of the animals, the fur or the pattern of scales on their bodies are yet other challenges difficult to master.

Not anymore.

In this book, you will learn how to draw expressive and lively portraits of a range of animals, from your humble house pets to vicious forest dwellers.

 

What will you learn in this book?

All about values and how they are especially important in a pen and ink drawing. How to determine the values and use them in a drawing.

Pen and ink drawing techniques.

Materials available for pen and ink drawing. 

Shading techniques.

Ink painting and techniques.

Foreshortening – the concept and its usage in drawing animal portraits.

 

Since the best way to learn is through hands-on experience, throughout this book, you will actually draw animal portraits using 20 step-by-step demonstrations. We'll be focusing on seven categories of animals, including:

Elephants

Cat family (felines)

Dog family (canine)

Reptiles

Horse family

Rodents

Monkeys

• Language: English
• Publisher: Shirish D
• Release date: Dec 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9788195735747

Book preview

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

MATERIALS

Free Resource – Pen and Ink Sketching Materials Guide

SHADING TECHNIQUES

The True Value of the Values

An Important Tip About Drawing Technique

Shading Technique #1: Hatching

Shading Technique #2: Cross Hatching

Shading Technique #3: Contour Shading

Shading Technique #4: Stippling

Shading Technique #5: Random (Scribbling)

Criss-Cross Hatching – A Variation of Random (Scribbling) Techniques for Drawing Animal Fur

Free Resource – Pen Shading Techniques ‘Cheat Sheet’

Using Ink for Shading

The Drybrush Technique for Ink Painting

THE IMPORTANCE OF FORESHORTENING

Important Notes About the Upcoming Demonstrations

ELEPHANT

Profile View

Full View

Side View

THE CAT FAMILY (FELINES)

House Cat

Tiger

Lion

THE DOG FAMILY (CANINES)

A Hairy Dog

Fox

Fox Hound

REPTILES

Crocodile

Turtle

Iguana

THE HORSE FAMILY

Horse (Side View)

Donkey

Horse (Full View)

RODENTS

Chipmunk

Raccoon

MONKEYS AND APES

Chimpanzee

Silverback Gorilla (Face)

Silverback Gorilla (Full View)

BEYOND THIS BOOK…

PARTING WORDS FROM THE AUTHOR AND BONUS CONTENT

GRATITUDE AND REQUEST FOR REVIEW

DRAWING

ANIMAL PORTRAITS

IN PEN AND INK

Learn to Draw Lively Portraits of Your Favorite Animals in 20 Step-By-Step Exercises

Shirish Deshpande

Copyright ©2022 by

HuesAndTones Media and Publishing

Author: Shirish Deshpande

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without written permission of the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

All artwork presented in this book is the copyright of the artist, regardless of whether they bear the artist’s signature or not.

INTRODUCTION

We have more to learn from animals than the animals have to learn from us. Anthony Douglas Williams

Humans have shared and continue to share this wonderful planet with innumerable plants and animals. When our prehistoric ancestors discovered drawing, some of their first subjects were inspired by the animal kingdom. To this day, animals keep inspiring us, we modern artists, for our drawings and paintings.

In this book, we will learn to draw various types of animal portraits using pen and ink. The word portraits may be somewhat misleading, as most people tend to think of portraits as illustrations of faces only. This is far from the truth. Portraits not only show the face of a person (animal in this context), but they may include some parts of the body (to convey the mood or action) or even some part of the environment where the subject is placed.

An Important Note Before You Begin

This book is meant for readers who want to learn simple, no-fuss methods to draw attractive animal pictures. This book is not meant to be a crash course in animal anatomy.

If you are looking for a guide to drawing ultra-realistic drawings, this book is not for you. If you are looking for a guide to draw well-proportioned, realistic, and lively animal drawings, this book is definitely for you.

Structure of This Book

In the initial chapters of this book, we will learn about some materials and shading techniques we can employ to draw animals. We will learn about the concept of values and learn how to use the values to our advantage. We will learn the concept of foreshortening and how it can help us draw more realistically.

We will learn about drawing a gamut of common animal types. There is virtually an infinite variety of animals on this planet, and no book can cover all of them. But I hope you will find enough interesting examples in this book. For each type of animal, we will learn to draw at least one step by step.

I will explain some common characteristics that all animals of each type have in their respective families. For example, lions, tigers and house cats all belong to the same feline family and have certain common characteristics. But they also have enough differences to warrant different demonstrations for each. If you want to draw other animals of the same family (for example, a jaguar, wildcat, puma, panther, or cheetah), you can employ the same principles we learn while drawing the three animals of the feline family.

But before all that, let’s take a look at the materials we need for drawing.

MATERIALS

If you have read any of my previous books about pen and ink sketching, you might find some repetition in this chapter. If you already have all the information you need about materials, you may skip ahead to the next chapter. If you have any questions about the materials, you can revisit this section later.

Just like the number of species of animals, there’s virtually a limitless variety of drawing material available. I will cover a large amount of that material here. But there will always be more than can be accommodated in one book.

For basic pen sketching, you need only two things: blank paper and a pen. However, we artists are never satisfied with limited materials. We always want more! So, here’s a list of all the materials that I use for pen and ink sketching. (This does not mean this is an exhaustive list of materials.)

The list of materials, just like the list of subjects, is virtually endless. But I will try to provide a starting point for your next shopping list.

Pencil, Eraser and Sharpener

pencil

Although entire sketches can be done using a pencil, here I will focus on using a pencil to do rough work, in preparation for a complete pen and ink sketch.

Pencils come in three types:

- H type – hard pencils which produce very light shades.

- B type – very soft pencils which create very dark shades.

- HB type – somewhere in between H and B.

Since I only use pencils for rough work in a pen and ink sketch, my intention is to erase these lines later. So, I prefer either H or HB type pencils.

Pens

Technical pen

There are many choices for pens, and each has its own advantages:

Ballpoint Pens and Gel Pens

These pens are very cheap, available in assorted colors and readily available. When using these, make sure you keep a spare rag nearby. These pens tend to accumulate ink near their tips, which may result in ugly dots on the sketch. Also, make sure you keep wiping the pen tip periodically before, after and during sketching.

I suggest having a white ink gel pen handy