Realistic Animals in Colored Pencil

Learn to draw lifelike animals in vibrant colored pencil

Bonny Snowdon

• Publisher: Walter Foster Publishing
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781600589096
• eBook ISBN: 9781600589102
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Art General

From Walter Foster Publishing’s popular Realistic series, which features step-by-step instructions for drawing amazingly lifelike artwork in the dynamic colored pencil medium, comes Realistic Animals in Colored Pencil.

Whether you are an aspiring or established artist, you can learn to draw your favorite animals with incredible detail and photorealism. This follow-up to Realistic Portraits in Colored Pencil and Realistic Still Life in Colored Pencil is authored and illustrated by an accomplished colored pencil artist with numerous art awards to her name.

The artwork looks complex, but it’s possible to replicate with the help of the thorough section on colored pencil techniques that opens the book. Learn how to create various effects, including:

• shading
• blending
• layering
• burnishing
• and more!

The following pages cover animal textures, such as fur, hair, eyes, tongues, and more, and how to create them. The step-by-step projects are awe-inspiring in their realism and feature popular animal subjects like dogs, cats, horses, birds, exotic animals, and more. Laid out in a way that’s easy to follow and understand, the projects are approachable and appealing for any skill level.

Whether you simply wish to gawk at amazingly photorealistic art or create your own animal portraits, Realistic Animals in Colored Pencil is the perfect resource.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Now you’re ready to combine all of the techniques and concepts you’ve learned to create stunning, realistic animal portraits in colored pencil! In the following step-by-step projects, I’ll show you how to go from initial sketch to fully developed final art.

At the beginning of each project, you’ll find a list of all of the colored pencils I used to complete the piece, organized by brand. The step-by-step instructions in each project list the colors of colored pencils to use, but not the brand name. Please make sure to refer back to the list of colored pencils at the beginning of the project for brand names and numbers of the colored pencils. Remember that you don’t need to use the exact same palette as me—feel free to explore and experiment!

Project 1:

KITTEN

Let’s start with this adorable, playful kitten. This project demonstrates why it’s always a good idea to get darker areas in from the beginning, as they set the scene for the rest of the drawing. Your darks and lights are the most important part of a piece, followed by details and color.

PALETTE

Faber-Castell Polychromos

Pencils

Orange Glaze 113

Black 199

Cold Grey I 230

Dark Sepia 175

Burnt Ochre 187

Warm Grey V 274

Brown Ochre 182

Nougat 178

Burnt Siena 283

Earth Green 172

Walnut Brown 177

Support

Fabriano® Artistico hot-pressed paper in traditional

white (size 9" x 12"/A4)

Caran d’Ache Luminance

Raw Umber 50% 846

Raw Umber 10% 842

Brown Ochre 50% 836

Brown Ochre 10% 832

French Grey 10% 802

White 001

Buff Titanium 801

Caran d’Ache Pablo

Granite Rose 493

Other Tools

Kneadable eraser

Embossing tool

Make your initial sketch using the reference photo to the left. With a sharp Dark Sepia, add the darkest areas of the kitten.

Using light pressure, outline the dark areas around the eyes. Lightly fill in the pupils, leaving the highlights free of pigment. Add the nostrils and the little triangle of the mouth, bringing the lines down softly. Gently pick out the whisker marks.

Add the dark areas of the kitten’s fur: along the top of the ears, in the raised paw, in the darkest areas of the body, and in the tail area. Use light pressure, as you are simply plotting out the dark areas and can darken them as you progress through the drawing.

Using an embossing tool and very firm pressure, indent whiskers into the paper before doing anything else. Afterward, when you run a pencil over the indented marks, they will stay white. Note: The enlarged photo is darkened so that you can see the indented lines.

TIP

Move your pencil strokes in the direction of fur growth to make the fur look realistic. Use gentle, sweeping strokes, paying particular attention to the direction of fur, as well as its length. This kitten has long hair, so your pencil strokes will be longer than with a shorthaired kitten.

THE EYES

With a sharp Raw Umber 10%, gently fill in the irises. Don’t add color to the pupils or catchlights.

With a sharp Earth Green, add gentle pigment around the outside of the pupil areas.

With a sharp Raw Umber 50%, add more color to the iris areas. Don’t completely cover the eye areas with color; some of the Raw Umber 10% should show through.

Using a sharp Black, darken the pupil areas. Apply medium pressure to darken the area around the eye: the top eyelids and around the corners of the eyes. Add a little more Earth Green into the iris area, and using White, fill in the catchlights.

If the eye areas look a little grainy, use a sharp White to gently burnish the areas of color, except in the black pupils and around the eyelid areas.

THE EARS

1 Using a sharp Cold Grey I, gently add a light layer of pigment into the middle of the ears. As you stroke the pencil over the indented lines, the hairs will start to appear. Don’t put too much pigment down at this point.

2 Take a sharp Warm Grey V and start to add some of the darker tone to the inside of t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Tools & Materials
• Basic Colored Pencil Techniques
• Creating Lifelike Animals
• Putting It All Together
• About the Artist
• Copyright