Painting animals in water colours

To begin with, choose an animal that you are familiar with. Dogs are unique animals to draw. Unlike domestic cats, dogs come in all shapes and sizes. All dogs do not share the same type of skull. In the series of painting animals, I have started the first exercise, the dog.

There are so many different shapes of dogs, stubby, long or whatever. In Figure 1, I have drawn and painted two adult dogs and a puppy. Notice how well defined the foreheads are and the long snouts. I have left a white line around part of the ears so their shape can be seen. In Figure 1 construction lines are shown on left and on the right in colour. First a light pale cream colour is applied for the body, while light brown wash is laid over.

Since these exercises are for children, I have used flat colours. We shall work on a few different techniques in the future.

The front view of heads in Figure 2 are slightly more difficult but not beyond your talent. Observe the out line drawn on the right and on the left in colour.

See how the eyes are drawn between the dotted lines. In these sketches you will observe the different length and quality of hair without going into much details. Look at Figure 3. You can see a complete sketch of a dog in colour. The main colour a pale cream is applied on the body. Light strokes in brown is applied to convey the gentle waves of fur.

A very small round brush can be use for final stages for the whiskers. It will take some practice to make a complete painting of any animal. So keep on painting until you achieve perfection.

Figure 2: front view