The Artist's Guide to Drawing Realistic Animals [Paperback]

Doug Lindstrand (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 23, 2006

Breathe Life into Your Animal Drawings

Wildlife artist Doug Lindstrand has spent 30+ years observing animals in nature and capturing them on paper. In this book, he distills his expertise into key lessons for drawing any animal in a charming, realistic style.

Inside, a whole herd of step-by-step exercises and demonstrations (43, to be exact!) cover a broad range of subjects and challenges, including how to draw:

• short, long and patterned fur
• mouths, eyes, ears and horns
• various poses, including seated, standing and moving
• a diversity of animals, domestic and wild - from housecats to big cats, from tiny cottontails to massive African elephants.

Nothing intimidating here! Starting with easy sketches, you'll learn to gradually refine basic shapes into lifelike dogs, wolves, deer, sheep, horses, bears, giraffes, owls, eagles, geese and other magnificent creatures. With this classic and time-tested approach, you'll be able to draw not only the animals illustrated on these pages, but any animal that touches your artistic soul.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Doug Lindstrand, who specializes in wildlife illustration and photography, honed his artistic expertise by living in the Alaskan wilderness and studying wild animals. He is the author of eight successful books on drawing instruction, including Alaska Sketchbook and Drawing America's Wildlife.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: North Light Books (August 23, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581807287
• ISBN-13: 978-1581807288
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #106,491 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars It's okay..., December 19, 2007

By 

Sassypoch (Federal Way, WA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Artist's Guide to Drawing Realistic Animals (Paperback)

I bought this book so I could learn how do draw not just animals accurately, but also parts of the animals and positions of animals. I was disappointed when I got this book because the directions are not very good. This author wants you to use tracing paper and gives the exact same directions at the beginning of every drawing. They say to make sure you get the shapes of the animals accurate and on tracing paper, then on another sheet of tracing paper, make your lines more accurate, then transfer to your final piece of paper. I personally do not use tracing paper, and would like to know how to "accurately" draw the animal shapes. This is not explained in this book.

Throughout the book, you will see beautiful sketches of all the animals, but the author does not show you how to draw them. The sketches in the book are completed in 3 to 4 steps. I'm not sure how they get from a bunch of circles, to a really nice outline of the animal, to a completed and shaded drawing.

I was also excited to learn how to draw an owl but highly disappointed when I found the owl page. The Female Snowy Owl is completed in 4 steps. Each sketch is about 1 1/2" to 2" tall. There is no focus on detail. How the artist got from step 3 (basic outline) to the final drawing is beyond me.

I do not consider myself a beginner when it comes to drawing. I have taken many art classes in my time and thought it would be fun to get a couple books on how to draw and start drawing again. This book is a big disappointment and I'm really glad I ordered "Drawing Wildlife" by J. Amberlyn. I've checked that one out at the library and have now purchased it. When that comes in the mail, I will use that one mainly and will probably get little use out of this book.

If you're a beginner at drawing, do not get this book. If you are looking for a book to explain to you what to look at when looking at a picture, this may work out for you. I'm a visual learner myself, so again, this book isn't that great.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good for artists who draw by eye., December 24, 2008

By 

Christina Schoppe "Latchkeygirl" (Boise, ID USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Artist's Guide to Drawing Realistic Animals (Paperback)

I really adore this book. It's got gorgeous pictures, and the author is very skilled.

Like the other reviewer, I was a bit surprised at the simplistic sketches the author used to illustrate the animals. However, I don't believe that this books was directed towards someone who just wants to "sketch" animals. A bigger level of dedication is required, as written about in the book. The author constantly refers to working in the field, or setting up at a zoo, and drawing by eye. The author himself claims to draw many of his pictures off of a photograph.

The author seems to assume that most artists are able to do this, when it really takes a lot of practice to get to that point.

In my opinion, this makes a wonderful book for reference and inspiration, but it isn't very good at laying out the actual steps. For artists like me that enjoy drawing off of photographs or references, this book is an amazing resource, but those who prefer to learn step by step and draw from memory may have a harder time.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Artist's Guide to Drawing Realistic Amimals, August 30, 2009

By 

Dorothy K. Manson (Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Artist's Guide to Drawing Realistic Animals (Paperback)

the book has a lot of information and clear understanding on how to do the art work. It had a lot of good points and made drawing more fun.