Drawing Fascinating Animals

Gr 4–8—Anyone can draw a sea star, sure, but what about a snow leopard? Or a pug with puppies? Readers who imitate the simple blobby shapes shown in step one of each of these titles will be well on their way to drawing remarkably professional-looking animals. Nicely colored finished drawings invite browsing but will be difficult to reproduce without a digital drawing tablet or advanced colored pencil skills. Each project is broken down into four-to-seven steps. Examples include a bear catching a fish, a lion family, and a squiggly octopus. Each project is augmented with a suggestion for stretching that also provides some information about these animals (for instance, draw the penguin diving or the lizard running on its hind legs), but the drawing process used here, with its emphasis on outline and not anatomy, does not teach an artist how to draw the animal in a variety of poses.