Transform your Drawing Mindset for Concept Art!

Struggling to improve your drawing skills? Many artists, especially beginners, find themselves relying on copying photos closely. This can be a helpful starting point, but it doesn’t always lead to deeper artistic development. In this blog post, we’ll explore how sketching live subjects, like animals at the zoo, can elevate your drawing practice.
But before you start drawing stunning 3D characters and environments, our MAGES Institute’s Diploma in Concept Art program will ensure you have the essential skills to fuel your imagination.

Why Draw From Life?

Traditional Concept art classes often focus on copying still lifes or photographs. While this approach has its merits, it can hinder your ability to capture the essence of a living subject. Animals at the zoo provide a dynamic challenge. They move, they interact with their environment, and they can’t hold a pose for you!
This forces artists to focus on capturing the gesture – the overall posture and movement – of the animal. This quick sketch serves as a foundation, allowing you to build upon it by studying the animal’s proportions and details later.

Drawing Animals

Drawing from life and subjects such as animals can also help us to break free from the habit of copying pixel by pixel. Instead, we will learn to observe and capture the essence of life through quick gesture drawings. Therefore, taking a trip down to the zoo to practice is one of the best ways. Animal sketches typically take only 5-10 minutes, with the first 1-2 minutes dedicated solely to capturing the initial pose.

From Gesture to Artwork

In the zoo, you may encounter a variety of fascinating creatures and each animal presents a unique challenge. There may be an opportunity to get a glimpse into the animal’s bone structure as well.
It is also important to remind oneself not to get bogged down in details during the initial sketch. The focus should be on capturing the loose gesture and proportions. Later, the artist can always refine the sketch, ensuring all the important anatomical landmarks are in place.

Benefits of Live Sketching

In conclusion, live sketching offers several advantages:

Improves Observation Skills: By focusing on gesture and movement, artists learn to see beyond the surface details.

Enhances Understanding of Anatomy: Observing animals in motion helps artists grasp the underlying structure of living creatures.

Breaks Creative Block: Stepping away from still lifes and photographs can spark new ideas and approaches to drawing.

Makes Learning Fun: Who wouldn’t enjoy spending a day at the zoo while honing their artistic skills?

So, give it a try and perhaps head down to your local zoo with a sketchbook in hand. Most importantly, have fun drawing live animals and stay tuned for our next blog on the topic on how to level up your drawing skills with 2 game-changing tricks!