How to Draw Animals (Perigee)

If you want to buy a book that teaches your kids how to copy a cartoon picture of some poorly drawn animal you will find that in most other 'how to draw' books, but if you want to buy a book which teaches your kids how to really draw and build up the skills and confidence to do so - I think this book is the one to buy. I don't say that lightly either - when I was about the age my daughter is now I was given a book called 'How to Draw Animals' - I loved it so much I became an avid sketcher, eventually I ended up a professional graphic artist. So when my 9 year old asked for a book to teach her how to draw animals I bought this one hoping it might be the one I had - however it was not the same book I had as a kid, but rather than this being a disappointment I was very impressed - if anything it kinda made me wish it was the book I had myself all those years back because it was even better than the one I remember. Unlike a lot of these 'how to draw' books you get which are just teaching kids how to copy one image at a time, this books gets down to the key basics of drawing, showing how pictures are made up of shapes and shading. It gives the step by step to creating your own animal pictures with some confidence building studies as well as focusing on specific features from eyes to toes and everything in between. It has tonnes of examples for inspiration, crammed into the pages - this book could easily be 3 times as many pages considering the vast number of examples. The book looks a bit dated (published 1983) the cover is a little uninspiring and the page layouts are old school, but don't be put off by the presentation as the content more than makes up for this in my opinion. I can't imagine any child (aged 9 to 90) could read this book and not be inspired to buy a pack of pencils and a sketchbook.

I bought this book from Amazon last year - I can't remember the price, but it was an absolute bargain. It's not huge but it's packed for of content over its 119 pages or so, rather than having lots of extra white space for aesthetics. Being an older book, some of the writing is a little bit wordier than it needs to be but having looked at so many animal drawing books, this has to be my favourite (the Wetherley one also looks great though I'm not about to pay £50 to find out). The book covers a good range of animals but it's not a substitute for a detailed anatomy book. Conversely, it has immense value in that it not only shows the bones and muscles of some major animals such as the horse and cow, but also shows gesture and proportion. The drawing guides and box forms really help you ensure how to get your lay-in correct and this is something I've found missing even from animal drawing courses online taught by well-known instructors. If you want to be able to draw animals from imagination and not be slave to reference photos, this book will provide some great foundations. The book is also very helpful in showing individual animal details - comparisons of eyes noses, ears and so on. While no volume can ever cover every animal, you can see smaller drawings depicting various species within the same animal family to help you adjust your mainframe accordingly. For the price, you absolutely cannot beat it - well worth it (as per many of Jack Hamm's books)!

This book was beyond my expectations and is quite exceptional especially considering it was published in 1980, the sheer amount of detail is unreal and I have even learned quite alot about animals I never even knew lol. There's many detailed drawings of most animals also showing the subtle differences between certain animals like the lion and tiger or different bears and how bears are similar to dogs in some respects, and it even goes into anatomy of most animals showing bone structure and muscle placements its seriously amazing and not at all what I expected, the animals drawn are even super realistic and not cartoon looking so thats a bonus as other books I have are close but not realistic like this one. I 100% recommend this book especially for the price you cant go wrong.

is so informative and drawn in the book so very good to follow ,the anatomy of the animals are great too have helped me very much

This was recommended to me by a friend and it arrived this morning. It looks to be just what I need! Detailed without being overwhelming. It is well worth the money- a great purchase.

This prolifically illustrated paperback will prove of immense help to anyone wanting to improve their techniques in capturing animals on paper, whether they are of the wild variety or of the domesticated sort. It contains a wealth of extremely useful tips and information that will add realism to your art work. Great value.

Not very often i give 5* but this really is the business real in depth sketches of so many animals also they are broken down into pages with feet, heads, noses, eyes, ears, standing, running, walking, prancing, a real bargain book for me so much detail i have paid treble this for books that were total rubbish just photos of artists artwork no learning value at all I also highly recommend this something i also never do

Excellent book if you are starting out with sketching animals, it includes wildlife and domestic animals from different continents and is very good value as it includes feet, eyes, fur etc.

Assim como os outros livros do Jack Hamm, esse aqui é bom e barato. Não vai ter tudo aí, mas é uma boa companhia para o tópico de desenho de animais. Não é o suprassumo da área, mas também não chega a ser um desperdício de dinheiro. Os livros desse autor são engraçados, pois apesar das poucas páginas, ele preenche cada centímetro das folhas com uma infinidade de desenhos; chega a dar a impressão que o livro tem mais folhas do que na realidade tem. O maior exemplo disso é o "Cartooning the Head & Figure". Deve ter mais de 300 desenhos aquilo O.O

Libro molto bello, sintetico e ricco di contenuti. Per chi vuole disegnare mammiferi è perfetto anche perché altri animali non ci sono. Ottima la parte dedicata ai cavalli, soprattutto ai movimenti. Felini sono messi a confronto per evidenziare le differenze nella rappresentazione. Nasi, occhi, orecchie,zampe di diversi animali sulla stessa pagina offrono una buona panoramica a "colpo d'occhio". Buon acquisto sia per adulti che per i bambini appassionati del disegno degli animali che aspirino andare oltre i disegni di un 5-enne...

Ich hatte schon früher auch Tier-Zeichenbücher aber leider lernte man immer ein bestimmtes Bild Schritt-für-Schritt zu bewerkstelligen. Das eigentliche Verständnis für die Anatomie wird meistens wenig bis gar nicht behandelt. Bei DIESEM Buch aber nicht. Jedes Tier wird in seinen Proportionen erklärt, Vergleiche zwischen Artgenossen aufgestellt. Das Verständnis wird gefördert, wenn man diese Prinzipien lernt dann kann man es tatsächlich schaffen das Tier aus unterschiedlichen Winkeln/Perspektiven darzustellen. Ich habe ewig mit Pferde-Proportionen gekämpft, hier gibt es konkrete Anweisungen wie ein Pferd "funktioniert". Wie bei den anderen Jack-Hamm Büchern wird alles anschaulich dargestellt und mit Illustrationen erklärt. Man muss sich nicht unbedingt durch die englischen Texte wälzen, doch wenn man das tut, erkennt man dass diese locker flockig verfasst wurden. (Also kein Anatomie-Fachjargon und auch keine "Geschwafel")

Clearly the best book for anyone learning how to draw. The book does give step by step instructions, notes, and strategies for drawing different animals but its good even for biology students! Anatomically correct muscles and bones are included in the sketches and help to recreate realistic animals. I reccomend Jack Hamm books to anyone learning how to draw

Un libro que debía estar en mi biblioteca. Muy detallado e interesante. Es un libro de colección. Estoy contenta con la compra :)