I Wish I Knew THIS About Drawing Animals Before I Started Drawing

Gesture drawing is the most important skill to master for drawing living things

what art program do you use?

as someone who needs to be able to draw the occasional animal for my comic… bless this. i don’t wanna go crazy on animal anatomy like i do with humans

What app is this ?

Wow, afta say I never really saw drawing this way. That's so interesting !
It is really helpful, and as we learn you make us go along with you with examples, which is incredibly helpful
Thanks, this as really helped me a lot !

What brush do I use

I first drew animals using basic shapes and it helped me to learn the proportions but when i want to draw animal in movement i just freestyle because with the shapes it wouldn't give so much movement

love this

I think the best method for anyone is based on what the drawing is needed for. An Academic artist needing to use technique and form for the sake of realism, think scientific illustration, realism, etc. But for someone like an animator or illustrator, the life is maybe more important. But these examples aren’t universal. My main point though is, what makes it most enjoyable?

Being “good” at art should not be the goal for everyone, that isn’t the point of drawing unless you want it to be. For casual artists like me, who draw in their free time as opposed to career, the flowy and expressive approach is way more fun to me. I’m not the best artist, but everything I draw, my goal is to show movement or personality.

Neither idea is wrong, and they aren’t the only two approaches. Just go with what’s best for you and your needs/preferences

this really is a good video can you do one where you draw OVER the photo or maybe overlay it afterwords that'd be exceptionally helpful

Being dead honest I’m not seeing at all how this is less daunting than geometric shapes. Like don’t get me wrong I can see the appeal but I’m sure I’m not the only one who struggles to draw without some sort of guide; I imagine that’s why it’s the more widespread method taught.

If you ask me, the utilization of both would be the most effective.

As someone who draws animals, yes, all of this! I was taught by Gary Geraths, Aaron Blaise, and Mayuka Thais about everything you discussed! Animals are my comfort.

I believe that anatomical tiny details aren't as important as the feeling of what you portray. If it's supposed to be straight but looks better curved then so be it.

May the Force be with you

This is amazing! It really helped my sense of action when drawing animals. I think my flaw was that I was drawing them stationary, and not in motion. With your "dramatic bear interaction", it really showed to me the act of moving in a still picture. Fantastic video!! This will help me so much in my journey of creating art. Thank you so much! And if I must ask, what art program do you use? 🤩

Why is the name in Russian ?.. I've been bullied

legit good advice

Drawing cylinders and boxes - geometry. Drawing forces - physics. The latter is better

The thing is...for some reason I have always been drawing animals like that. I never had formal training in drawing except the things i saw along the way somewhere. When i first tried the technique of using shapes it felt quite stiff at first. Following the flowing outlines of the animal is such a natural way, and i think it might feel more natural for beginners too.

I have a Force drawing membership. When is Force Animal Basics coming?!

these techniques would be really useful for paleoart

Thank you for the subtitles!

Si… hoy much time was before you “discovered” gesture drawing?

Such a relatable video! These animal drawing tips are pure gold for beginners. 👉 Watch our fresh Kids videos for learning and fun

This gesture approach is really useful for stylized drawings, but I can’t help thinking that it’s been around five years since I first learned about the FORCE theory, and it still feels incomplete or even a bit mystical, rather than a straightforward method.

Maybe the geometry based construction isn't a bad idea for developing the sense of forms and how they are connected together for a beginner, then the idea of force lines can come at a later stage of learning process giving the drawings more life. Thanks!

thank you this was very helpful, very somple yet very effective!

Why'd you leave linkin park chester

I miss that guy, hes a skilled Force Instructor for animals

It's cool to see Dalrek again

Excellent video yet again! You guys should do a video on textures (rock, wood, fur) and how that relates to force.

Alan Watts would‘be loved this philosophy on drawing. He spoke/wrote extensively about the idea that what is fundamental is not the substance, the matter that makes up a thing, but the pattern, the doing, the process of being that is recognizable as a distinct phenomenon in & of itself. For an intuitive example, he talked about the nature of a whirlpool, or a candleflame… How at any given moment, the actual water & particulates that make up a whirlpool is changing (often the same atoms/molecules will never re-enter it twice, it likewise with the ones flowing through a river)… There is no rigid, permanent structure that is “the whirlpool.” There is just the pattern of “whirlpooling.” Similarly, the material that makes up a candleflame is rapidly changing from moment to moment. It’s going through new oxygen as fuel all the time, it’s burning away new parts of the wick… But we can easily recognize the familiar shape & luminosity & flicker of a candleflame. What makes it identifiable isn’t the stuff— it’s the “flaming,” the pattern of energy that makes it rise & point upwards, that makes it radiate light & warmth.

What’s less intuitive to many people in largely materialist culture (or cultures dominated by dualistic religions that describe the physical world as a craft having been made from “dust” or “clay,” something inert & solid & crude— very much evoking the same notion as mechanistic metaphysical materialism, that if there is some other, more transcendent stuff, like “consciousness/Mind” or “spirit,” then the “material” world is defined very starkly in contrast to that, as everything it’s not) is the idea he follows that up with: that the same is true of our own bodies. It’s easy to see how it applies to a simple form, like an ocean wave, which is pretty clearly just energy (a wave) displacing substance (the ocean water) into a distinctive pattern, very transiently. But, even though the metabolism of a lifeform is much more complicated, the way we spontaneously arose from the cosmos is really not any different. And he’s right… You could make the exact same “ship of Theseus” style argument about us. We are losing cells & atoms all the time, taking in new substance & integrating it as part of our body with every breath, every sip of water, every bite of food… What’s consistent, what makes us what we are, isn’t the exact molecules & atoms that make up our bodies; not the exact trillions of cells & bacteria & so on that we happen to consist of at any given moment… Nearly all the cells in our body die off & are replaced numerous times throughout a human lifespan. What is consistent is the pattern. The overall form— the process of each of us “personing.” “John Jonesing,” or whatever the role we play in the world happens to be. Our consciousness works the same way; outside influences are flooding into our stream of consciousness at every moment— a huge volume of sensory data. Memories are made, & ones our brain deems unnecessary are forgotten. Our personality develops & changes over time, along with our preferences, our beliefs, everything… But it’s the pattern of our consciousness, the streaming of our perception, our being, that is continuous & ties all of that together, just like the matter that flows through a pattern of “whirlpooling” or “flaming” or “streaming, is all tied together & made part of one thing by virtue of participating in that process/form. So, quite fascinating to implement that same lens of awareness in an artist’s effort to capture the nature of the processes/forms they’re observing.

Can force lines be applied to drawings of geometric objects e.g. buildings?

Ten minute Force Friday? I got up to get coffee and it was over 😢

Finally