Susie Wynne - Draw and Paint your Pet

Always work with a clean brush before applying any colour and at the end of your working day wash it out well with warm water and a mild soap. Brushes come with plastic covers and you should keep these and replace them after use; they will help retain the shapes of your brushes.

PAPER

My camera, watercolour paper blocks and sketchpads.

Watercolour paper is sold in single sheets or in pads or blocks. The blocks are more expensive and are formed of sheets compressed together; each sheet can be eased out with the blunt side of a knife via a little unstuck area. You will see the term ‘cold pressed’ used and this is the type of paper recommended for beginners, as it has a semi-rough surface. It is often known as ‘Not’ and this means that the paper has not gone through the process of hot pressing. It is suitable for washes and line work as it has a slight texture.

WATERCOLOUR PENCILS

SUSIE AT HER EASEL

Rambo , Susie’s cat , is a regular bystander when Susie is at work.

I have used Daler-Rowney Derwent watercolour pencils in this book and these come in presentation packs of 12, 24, 36 or 72 assorted colours. However, they are also sold singly and this is probably the best way to buy them because with a pack of pencils you usually find that there are many colours you do not wish to use. Make your selection with reference to a particular pet and buy more colours as you need them.

Make sure you have a good supply of lead pencils. Pencil grades range from hard, thin leads to soft, thick leads. The former are useful for fine work and the soft, thicker leads are ideal for covering wider areas and non-detail work. I prefer using an HB pencil for drawing for watercolour since it does not smudge into the paint mixture.

OTHER ESSENTIALS

You will also need a putty eraser and a good pencil sharpener.

I also find a camera an essential piece of equipment for capturing reference photos of all types.

Always work in good light, using a daylight bulb if you are not in a naturally lit studio space. A daylight bulb produces a true, natural colour as opposed to conventional yellow light bulbs.

Easels range enormously in size and price and as a start you can use a table easel.

Keep your working area orderly. Following this rule will help you work more easily and with greater concentration. A disorderly studio will not only slow you down, but will distract you in your creativity.

TIPS

Keep your working area clean, tidy and orderly, with watercolour pencils and paints in storage boxes.

Locate your work space away from distractions. If your attention is being taken up by something else get it done so that you can concentrate fully on your drawing and painting.

BASIC SKETCHING

An artist first has to be able to observe his or her environment well. You will find that your observation skills will improve markedly if you get into the habit of sketching regularly. In fact, sketching often and every day is a vital activity to help you progress in your drawing skills. Buy a small hard-backed sketchbook that you can carry around with you and use it as much as you can. Keep all your sketches and watch how your drawings get better with frequent practice.

LOOKING AT SHAPES

Even though this book is all about drawing and painting animals it is important to train yourself to look at the shape of everything around you. I would recommend you first of all just take a walk in your neighbourhood or local park and look at the basic shapes of buildings, trees and flowers and consider them from a new viewpoint. How would you start sketching that flower, say, as simply a shape? Spend time on this activity by just observing and working out in your head the shapes of various things you see. Then, on your next walk, take your sketchbook with you and make drawings and written notes to reinforce what you have observed.

Once you have trained your eyes to look at the things around you in terms of shapes you will find that you can look at your pet more objectively. For instance, notice how cats and dogs tend to curl themselves up when they are asleep or sitting, and you will soon start to see them as spherical shapes. Forget about any detail at this stage; the idea is to capture an impression of the animal that allows you to recognize its basic form. In doing so you may also surprise yourself as you start to draw typical poses that capture the spirit and character of the animal.

Acquiring the skill to recognize basic shapes will enable you to capture the form and outlines of the animal at the outset.

Simplify drawing an animal’s head by using basic shapes. They will create an underlying structure you can build on.

HEAD SHAPES

When you focus more specifically on a portrait drawing of an animal you must observe it carefully, looking for the component shapes. The head is always a good place to start, so make a study of it. Simplify the exercise by using basic geometric shapes such as circles, ovals, cylinders and cones, and forget about detailed outlines. Place yourself at different positions around your subject so that you are looking at it from all angles. Figure out if the basic outline of the head full frontal is square or round. It may change as you move to a different viewpoint – a head can be cone-shaped if you look at it in profile, for instance. Practise these head shapes for different animals in your sketchbook over and over again, drawing them routinely until the pencil becomes an extension of your hand.

Remember that each animal is an individual and that you must observe and consider it as such. Getting the overall shape of the head right will enable you to add further guidelines for the features. The animal’s features, too, can be drawn as geometric shapes at this stage and unless you observe them correctly you will have difficulty in making a realistic portrait. You can use a triangle within the circular head shape to line up the eyes and the nose, and the ears can be just simple little triangle shapes.