Force: Character Design from Life Drawing

Chapter 6Animals with Character

When drawing animals, we will use all of the tools we have used in previous chapters. The main difference here is the obvious; we are now drawing different species of life.

So what do we do? We imbue them with humanity! We search and find human character traits from facial features and expressions to body language that creates story. I try to get some expression in the animals’ faces to humanize them. We relate to the work on a more emotional level through these human ideas.

Animals give us interesting shapes to play with and be inspired by. Know your human and animal anatomy to assist you in creating informed designs. Knowing animals gives you a whole new pool of information to work from. You could combine humans ...