Sunday, July 23, 2017

Animal Painting from Life -- 7 Tips


I make a lot of super-short videos that are only 15-60 seconds long. I think that's too short to put on YouTube individually, so I packaged some of them up a group of them and tied them together with a theme.



So here are seven of my top tips for drawing and painting live animals.


1. TAXIDERMY (ALASKAN WOLF)
2. SLEEPING (BASSET, HUSKY)
3. HOLD THEM (LENNY / TURK / PATCHES)
4. PROFILE (PALOMINO)
5. TREAT (JEZEBEL)
6. MULTIPLES (CHICKENS, RABBITS)
7. AMUSE THEM (SMOOTH AT WINDOW)
(Link to YouTube).


Note the new title sequence, shot recently in a grassy field near here. I like the way the grass stems disguise the wires.
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Previously:
Answers to your questions about sketching animals from life

9 comments:

Unknown said...

I wonder if that was Turk?

James Gurney said...

Pete, the painting in my book was of Turk, but he died a while ago. That was Abby in the stall behind me.

Glenn Tait said...

A lot of great tips on working with animals, some you've posted and others are new.I love painting animals, especially birds. One thing that works really well in a park/lake setting, where birds are more used to being fed (something I don't do) is to take a plastic shopping bag, ball it up and start crinkling it in my hand. The sound draws some birds like a magnet, as they are expecting food. I've seen the noise bring ducks and geese from across a small lake by the dozens. Once there they tend to hang around, rest, preen or eat the grass in the area for 20 minutes or more. Most of the time they seem quite comfortable to putter around me, some right at my feet, as I sketch them.

Bob said...

# 2 -- SLEEPING is of course how to draw one's cat! This is the only subject I've ever "painted" (using GIMP) from life:

http://ombdinotopia.proboards.com/thread/1688/bricabrachs-art-thread?page=5

As far as using "physical media, on location" -- well, I painted my shed once....

Unknown said...

James,

A similar topic but do you have any tips when it comes to drawing and painting insects from life? It can be tempting to pull up photos of them due to the zoomed in views and if bugs make you squeamish (they do for me usually).

Rich said...

That gives me an idea how these genre-painters went to work, with all those hunting hounds in action and dogs in farmhouse rooms, for instance.

Steve said...

Jezebel deserves her own career in films.

The Sketcher said...

Looks good good James. Works like a champ!

Carol Scown-Raynal said...

I must show this video to my cats.