🐐 How to Draw Animals with Glenn Vilppu

I originally started teaching animal drawing, oh, fifty years ago. How do you draw something that you don't know anything about? I'm Glenn Vilppu , I approach animal drawing differently. I teach animal drawing from a structural point of view so that you can draw animals from imagination. I'm Glenn Vilppu. Today, right now, animal drawing. Now let me give you a little background on how I approach animal drawing and how I started teaching animal drawing. I've been doing that for - I've been teaching animal drawing for probably close to 50 years. Okay. The first time I started

teaching animal drawing was not to teach animal drawing. It was really on how to take and draw something that you didn't know anything about and so that was the beginning point. And it's all based on analyzing what it is that you're drawing, just like my figure drawing class. In fact, you're - those of you that have been in my figure classes, this will all seem very, very familiar. Okay so the idea was to take and analyze what you were looking at. Okay now how do you go about doing this because you don't know anything about

the thing that you're drawing. Okay, you start with something that you do know. Or hopefully what we're focusing on then, we're starting with - we'll take an example now, we're gonna take - what do we know is us? The humans. Okay so if we start out with the basic elements that are common to all people. Okay let's take and start with basically the skull. Okay this you need to know to start with. Now everybody has two eyes, a nose, a mouth, you have the ears that would be sticking in here. We're all pretty much the

same. So these are the basic elements that we start with. Okay so normally we take and go through this and so the starting point is first - and I'm gonna do a profile here to begin. Okay. Now here's our basic human. We start out with something like that. The eyes are in the center. We got the brow line here, we go a cheekbone, the nose sticks out. The mouth in here, chin. The jaw coming back. Everybody's ear is in pretty much the same thing. We have the zygomatic arch, which comes back here. We can feel

the corner of the eye socket is here. Coming back we have a nuclear ridge in the back of our head and the neck then taking and coming down. Okay. That's - and we pull from that into the ribcage. That's the beginning. Now everybody has - now let's just take and draw this again from the front view. Okay, eyes are in the center. We got the corners of the eye socket through cheekbone here. The ear pretty much lines up here. The plane going across here. Bottom of the nose. Down, jaw coming down. Okay. Then the pit

of the neck, going down. Eyes. Okay. This is pretty much a standard. Now, what if we take - and let's start with this again and I'll draw a little bit lighter and we'll start to modify and we'll draw this sort of three quarter view now. (drawing) Corners of the eye socket. Brow line. Eyes going down, corners of the cheek, jaw, add this plane, mouth, nose. And here mouth coming out. Okay got the zygomatic arch, got this line coming through. Pit of the neck down here. Now okay what if I take - let's take and just

remove the top part of the head and go back here and I'm beefing up the brow line a little bit. Coming down, we still got the cheekbones, coming through, now what are the elements that we take and deal with is scale of animals and what - who are predators and who are gonna get eaten. Okay so basically we're a predator. Our eyes are straight forward. Now we eat fairly soft food. But if you take a chimpanzee or a gorilla, their eaters of a lot of very rough food and they're jaws are much stronger so if

we take already here as I removed sort of, in a sense, the brain here, but now if I pull out the mouth through here and we got the teeth in here, the nose is still in the same place, Okay so the minute I start to do that this starts to become pretty much a chimpanzee. Okay so - but now we have to deal with scale. Okay. The bigger the animal is, the heavier it is, the more muscles they have to have to take and deal with this but the fundamental elements are pretty much the same.

There's not that much difference really between say a mouse and a horse or a dog, something like that. They're all - we all have the same - all mammals have the same basic elements. So now if I take and say well okay what about a gorilla. Well if you take a profile of a gorilla, in other words I'll go back to what I've just drawn here, we've got all I've done here now is taken this and pulled out this teeth, the nose is still in the same place, and I lopped off the top. So there

you basically you've got a chimpanzee. And now if we have a gorilla, a gorilla's got this huge head. Let me show you. This is a gorilla. Look at this head. Look at this scale that we're talking about here. Heavy. What you see here is we have this big flat area across the back of the head. Now that's needed to take and hold up this massive head that we're working with. So you've got this large volume that we're looking at. So this thing. But you notice the brow, the mouth, cheekbones, where the ear is and right

here, let me put some of this down. The ear is right there. Same thing. End of the zygomatic arch. So as we take the forms as I take this and add this and we start to come in, so now we've got basically a gorilla, big muscles taking and coming down, heavy head. But all of the basic elements are in the same place. Nose, mouth, eyes. All we have is difference. That's all there is. You look to see the difference. And so it becomes an analysis. So once you know the human head you pretty much know

a gorilla head with slight variations. Okay and those slight variations of course can be rather dramatic as we're taking and working with these things. But here it's a matter of scale. In other words if I take here this is a cat. Cat skull. Okay. This is a tiger skull. They're the same - they're basically they're the same thing. There's not that much difference other than size. It's the size that takes and makes the difference. But house cat's a predator - well obviously he's a predator. Or this is a tiger actually. But you can see the

tiger now, like the gorilla has to have an extra extension, this plate back here, to take and hold up this massive head. Okay but the eyes - the cat's obviously a predator. Now, there are differences. We come through these things so this is one of the big differences to start with as we're talking about what do they eat. Chimpanzee, gorilla, rough food. Cats they eat - predators, just like us. So there are differences but the eyes, the nose, the mouth, things, are all pretty much the same, Now but when you move away from the predator

type, which I'm talking about who the predator is eating, who are they chasing? Then we change the basic anatomy but the parts are all in the same place. So as we take and go from that now we take a good example here would be let's take this. It's a mountain goat. Sheep, goats, all pretty much the same. Okay. But you notice that they eyes are on the side this way. Okay, so what we get then is we start out with the same basic configuration. And as we start out we usually - this is the same

thing. Now, you're gonna find as I'm doing the drawing of these animals, I'm gonna be doing a lot of stuff that's gonna look very, very familiar in terms of animation drawing. We take and do a lot of what you do - and I did this in the figure - we take and we construct the figure. We construct the animal as we're going through doing the drawing but we construct it in a logical way. As we go through this you're gonna see we're not all that different. Now these guys are from here or to a goat

or to a rabbit, pretty much have a lot of similarities. Okay. But here we can see now that we have as I'm taking here. Instead of the eyes being in front like this, we have now the eyes are more onto the side. So we got through this shape the eyes are on the side here now. And we go back, pull in through here. Now you're gonna find - but also what do they eat. A sheep take and eat - they're browsers. They're picking stuff off the ground. So notice that there's no teeth up here. He's

taking and he takes and he's a nipper. The bottom teeth they come up, they're nipping off the bottom in here. So this is a basic part of it now and so the differences of what they eat, scale, but eyes are in the same place, nose is in the same place, zygomatic arch is in the same place, the ear is in the same place, so all of the basic stuff, same spot. And this is what you need to take and now then we start to look at the differences. So as I'm drawing this I'm gonna come

through and I say well alright, come out here, here. And the nose, the nose would be in the same spot. No different than the horse, same thing. Coming through the mouth. Jaw is gonna come down underneath. The zygomatic arch is taking and pulling around through into here. The ear will be right here. So we constantly are taking and looking at these basic elements This is the starting point. Now you start talking about teeth. How they take and relate to each other. They can take and look at well while I've got it here- okay this is

another, this is a sheep. Look at the teeth again. Very similar to this, big difference between the two here, this has got more of a rounded face coming across through here. Okay. Eyes are way to the side, zygomatic arch, teeth. Now you notice the teeth. The teeth they don't - they're grinders. They grind the grain, eating stuff off the ground. Okay. Now that's where our friend the cat takes and comes in to play. As you look at this now, look at the teeth that we're looking at. Okay. (fixing) Now, one thing a lot of people

don't realize. Cats can't chew. These teeth, the stuff goes just like that. There's no side movement to it. It's a stab and slice is what it is. So what they eat then is important. But your house cat is exactly the same. House cat, they don't chew, they squash. They capture, they puncture. Okay. Still looking forward, you can see the eyes are facing forward. Zygomatic arch, got this huge space in here because the muscles now that come through are locking into the jaw, they have to be really big muscles because this guy is taking and opening

his mouth like that to take and grab something. Okay. So this is your basic Siberian tiger. Okay, now if we go back to our gorilla. Okay gorillas can chew. But they can also stab, they can also nip We've got all of these basic elements. We're talking about scale, we're talking about the stuff. Now if we take and go from the cat to say, a rodent, now you're looking. Look at those teeth. Okay. What you got, the teeth are now taking and for gnawing. Okay the eyes sort of combination. Pretty much looking to the side though.

Okay so we're gonna be looking at some mice a little bit later on we're gonna be taking and drawing mice and a hamster. Okay you can see that this is the way it goes but they can open up the really but the eyes are still in the same place, nose is still in the same place, teeth are in the same place, jaw goes back to the same point right in front of the ear. So we're all the same thing. And this carries through so now we can take and you look from here to this. Now

we have a cat, little white jaw is a cat and I think - I'm not sure what this was but this is another little bit larger, sharp teeth, nipper, just like the cat. So the similarities pretty much the same. And so I'm looking at the skulls - maybe one's a little bit longer, one's a little bit forward, not that much difference. Now some of the animals do have rather different looking skulls. Okay now here this is a domestic pig. When I got this pig it was on a platter with - that somebody had just butchered

it and brought the thing to me, the head was on a platter and I had to take and clean it. But you look at the shape now, the skull. It's very different. Okay but what you see, the eyes are in the same place, nose in the same place, teeth, the zygomatic arch. Now the eyes, a little bit more but still they're on the side but they tend to look forward a little bit. Pigs can be predators okay. So now what we can find that are the teeth, now this might be of interest. Now when I

got this and I was cleaning it unfortunately it got dropped someplace along the line and got broken but you can look at the thickness. Look at the thickness of the skull in here. Really thick. Again so we have all these basic things that are similar that we do and similarity goes to a lot of different points/ For instance okay we started out with the idea of a sphere but when you start dealing with the other animals like the deer even the pig, goats what we see that is pretty much a variations on a triangle. (drawing)

They become this type of a basic shape with the eyes in here. The nose coming through. Now the jaw, coming down, and what we find then is that this triangle - now this could be - we're talking about giraffe, horse, goats, sheep, they're all variations on this triangle. And so the slightly difference is some are taken a little bit broader. We start to look at the similarities of shape then. And to see how these variations play, one into another. So these are the steps now. As we go through the figure then, as we go through

the animals, we're constantly taking and breaking it down into its components. And so here we need to take and let's get a clean piece of paper here and we'll take and okay now, as we go back to what we know, these are all ourself. Let's take and start - the idea of the ribcage. Well now here's where we get really big differences between the ribcage. Know that we're very broad, we have this clavicles that take and come around. So we have this broad shape that's coming through here. So let's take and compare a little bit

here. Now, as I'm taking and thinking okay if I look at a cross section of our ribcage, what we see is something like this. (drawing0 We're broad and our scapulas are on the side and they're going back this way. They're on the back, sort of this back and side type thing. Okay so the scapulas are back here, this way. Okay now, as we start going through all of the mammals, what we're going to see is a very clear distinction here. Like we take a horse or a cat, what you're gonna see instead of this, the

ribcage is taking and doing this. It's rather narrow, rather than wide. What that does is the scapulas that we have on the back here now take and come forward. into here. Okay so what we think of as the shoulders, not actually become in front. Okay so now I'm gonna take and we're gonna go through sort of the generic four legged mammal idea. So we start with - and this is - it follows a basic pattern of the human. In other words if I take and do a simple diagram of a human (drawing) or primates okay,

we have the head, neck, ribcage, going down. Pelvis, through here, the legs coming out and we're going down to the knees and so forth. We have these very clearcut sections. Clavicles come from here, go out this way, leave that way. Arms come down, elbows wrist, okay. Notice I'm taking and putting spots to where the joints are. This is going to become a very, very critical part of what we do. Okay so now as I'm taking and sort of the generic animal here is that we start with okay the head. And I'll give it even a

sort of triangular shape here. Feel the neck coming in. The ribcage. Now this is a part that most people tend to not be conscious of, even in the regular figure drawing classes. That the ribcage is very, very small up at the top. This is tiny, tiny. Tiny, tiny, tiny shape up here. That's true for all of the animals now. Our ribcage is very small at the top, well with dogs, cats, horses, we all are the same. The spine now takes and comes through and goes through to here. So we have our ribcage, we have our

separate parts. We got the same elements here except now the scapulas are taking and are on the side, coming through this way. And then elbow coming down, coming down through the wrist and into all the phalanges. Okay now the pelvis, now here's where we get some differences. But not for all the animals now. A lot of the larger animals have similar kind of pelvises that we do. Notice that this is very broad across here. Well we start looking at some of the animals now what we find - let me find my pieces of pelvis here.

Okay, the pelvis of most of your animals, cats, dogs, horses, not horses so much, but your felines and stuff, it's very narrow. This is a half of a pelvis here. Okay, so this is a corner. Let me take and draw what I'm trying to say. This is a - this would be for a goat or actually I take this back, this is probably a dog, it's a piece came through. But you can see that it's rather long this way. I'm gonna take and just diagram this pelvis as - our pelvis is broad this way. Profile.

Pubic arch here, ischial tuberosity is here. Trochanter would be. Tail coming down into here, end of the iliac crest, and then the leg. Okay, that's us. Now if you take a cat or even a rabbit here, we have a rabbit. As you look at this, what you see is the pelvis is long and narrow this way. So the difference then here, as you can see, this is like a line that goes down this way. So let me see if I can put this back. Okay. So what I'm showing you here is this rail is one

half of the pelvis but it's long so if I take and modify ours here, what we get is like this to that. If we take and diagram this three dimensionally then, what we see and I take and we're looking for - these are like two different rails that are taking and going back this way with the spine, the tail coming out of up here, trochanter here, the ischial tuberosity would be in here and then we're going down, the knee, ankle, and start moving down. Now cats and dogs, pretty much the same. Same as this rabbit

pretty much. Okay the difference between say a cat and a dog is that a cat's pelvis is parallel this way. These are points are equal. Tail coming out of here. A dog is just the opposite, a dog's pelvis is wider at the back than it is at the front. Okay so what we're talking about now is we're talking about the spine that's coming through, going in here, pelvis that is on an angle, coming across through here this way. And then we're taking and coming down. Notice that the shape here, this area here, this is roughly

a square. That you will find is true for most four legged animals. Dachshunds of course have been bred to be something else and so have some of the other animals. But that's very typical. Okay so we tend to start looking for the same elements within the drawing then. Okay. Let's take and get another clean sheet of paper here. Okay now I'm gonna draw this generic animal here, a couple of them sorry. About three quarters. So now I'm gonna start out with this head coming through, the eyes going across, (drawing) through. The muzzle, shape coming through.

Cheekbones going back. Through. Nose is gonna be in the same place. Ears in the same spot. Okay now think of the neck going back in. And what we're doing now is we're taking and saying okay the neck is fitting into this ribcage, which is this volume that takes and is going back in. Coming through. The ribcage, where the spine continues on, going back, and now we come to the pelvis. Here, pelvis now is these rails that are going back through here with the tail coming up here. Now in the front, we take the scapula now

are taking and coming forward this way. Now there's a difference in the scapulas because of the fact that it's in front and they don't have a clavicle to hold them apart. Okay so the shape of the scapula is different. Here ours is the sort of a triangular shape, one side of it being so much larger than the other side. But what we find here now is the scapulas for most of the animals now you will find that the two sides will be pretty much the same. Also they don't have a point for where the clavicle

would be attaching. Okay so what this does now this creates a corner in the front. Now the neck now, if we take into consideration all - the esophagus and muscles and stuff, this is essentially a cylinder now that is feeding into this triangle of a box. Now what you will see as we go through in drawing the animals, this becomes very clearly a box. Generally we were able to see the scapulas sticking up from the back. The humerus as it goes down, the upper arm it helps to make us see this sort of a box

type shape. So now we have a ribcage that's taking and coming down. They have a sternum just like we do through the neck, okay coming through. This is a rounded form. Coming around through here. Okay now the waist, this is a different point now. Where you look at our waist, okay, you can see that these bones are taking and are pretty much - are pretty much parallel. Okay this is from a a sheep. Notice how this thing sticks out. Okay, each part of the spine has specialized bones. The neck is different from the thorax to

the lumbar to the sacrum. They're all different. Okay now at the waist these bones stick out, showing more like this on the side. So we get a very flat area across here, which really creates a waist within the form. And then we feel the corners of the pelvis where it's actually sticking out at that point. So now if I diagram what we've done so far. Head - and I'll actually put a spout on this thing, ears, will be to the side. We have a neck. We have a ribcage, it's narrow in the front, broader as

we go back, we have a waist and then we have the pelvis, which is again in box form. So now you've got this schematic. You can see these are the elements. The scapula, then we'll be taking and fitting in here and here on the side going forward. This way. So now these become the basic elements that we're constantly looking for when we're doing the drawing. This is the pattern that the bones go. As artists, you have to know - and if you're gonna start painting or illustrating or animating - you have to know where all

the parts are. Just like here. You've got to know now this relates to that to that to that. You've never think about drawing the human without knowing where the elbow was or the shoulder or the wrist. We have to take and deal with this. Now one of the basic characteristics is that in four legged animals, it's a pattern again. It's really a pattern. We have a diagonal here. Now this is true to almost all of the animals with some exceptions. Okay. The first big exception is an element. Elephant's clavicles are not on a diagonal, they're

vertical. Okay but here what we find is we go from here to here to here to here. It's a zigzag pattern. It's this. Each of these points you think about as being a hinge. They can take and move just like us. We have these like hinges that they can take and move. So we focus on following the pattern of how these forms take and then go. It's a pattern, pattern, pattern. And so you need to know how this pattern takes and works. Okay so this is the beginning. This is the beginning thing. Now whether it's

this rabbit, see the rabbit's got the same exact thing. Scapulas going to the side, coming down to the elbow, to the wrist, into the fingers. Leg, coming down, has a patella just like we do, come down to the heel, ankle, and then down into the toes. The ribcage, narrow in front, gets broader as it goes back. Notice that the spine now has these things that are going out to the side, just like what we're talking about here. The rail of this pelvis is the same. On this one they've got the tail sort of folded back

on it here. But this is all part of the same basic configuration. It's the same thing. See so we take and you looking for all of this. See when you look at this up here like that, very familiar. Very familiar. So these are the shapes, these are the shapes that we take and deal with and look at. And we're constantly trying to see the difference from one to the other. Okay now some of the differences that we come into and I'll take and as we start working I'll be showing you more skeletons and stuff online,

that we take and we build with this stuff. So you're constantly taking and looking at the sort of the basic pattern so no matter where you're taking and looking from, whether you're looking at it from the back - now here is a strong similarity between drawing the figure and drawing the animal. The first thing you do is the gesture. The movement of the animal. Now one thing I want to point out if you go out and get your own cat, your own dog, look at horses, you go to the zoo, you're drawing animals, they're not

gonna sit still for you unless they're sleeping. And then they're no fun to draw. Okay so what they're gonna do, they will be constantly moving. And so what you do is you do many drawings and you will find that the animals will tend to cycle through the same basic poses as we start going through. Okay so the first step then is just taking and feeling the flow of what the animal is doing. And as I'm drawing I'm thinking of the pattern that the animal takes. Where the scapulas are, which way it's turning, looking up and

through. I'm constantly taking and just drawing the flow of - it's like when I first started working in animation, knew nothing about animation. I was 40 years old but I had been teaching animal drawing for quite a while already. And so when I had to start taking and drawing characters, animals, we draw animals as often as people in animation, that it was just very natural. There was no big difference from what I was doing. So we just took and we started to build with this. So now as I come through, I'm taking into consideration these

different parts. We got the head, now I've got this animal taking and turning. So I'm thinking of where the eyes which way are they going? Muzzle is going up that way, the neck is pivoting. I think of the ribcage, so now as I'm drawing this ribcage I'm going around, coming through, scapula - like okay where is the scapula? Well the scapula is taking and coming up, it'll be in here. Coming back from the scapula to the elbow, to the wrist, I look for the waist, coming through, and then I'm conscious of a box that's being

created by the pelvis itself. So I've got all of these elements now that I'm taking and constantly taking and working with. The tail, where the tail would be coming out of here, where the leg is going back in and coming back out and how we start to take and work with this. So this is the beginning stages of everything that we do. It's first, you take and get the gesture, feel the flow. Taking and as I'm doing that I'm consciously, right away, you can see in the zigzag as I'm coming through, nothing fussy, nothing just

feeling the flow as you're coming through. And you build on that. Empower your creativity with the internet's leading subscription library for artists at NMA.art No matter what your skill level, you can learn drawing, painting, sculpture, and much more with thousands of videos taught by master instructors. Our instructors are professional artists and best selling authors, leading art education with over 40 books in print around the world. Our cutting-edge, interactive learning format takes art instruction to a new level. Learn at your own pace, anytime, anywhere. Take advantage of our self study assignments and beautiful references to practice

your artistic skills. Our mission is to provide exceptional training to artists around the world at an affordable price. Thousands of artists just like you have used our library to take the first step into the art world open new career possibilities, and improve their professional skills. NMA.art is the most comprehensive art training on the internet. Your subscription is everything you need to reach your artistic goals. Let us transform your art and unleash your creative potential. Start your free trial today at NMA.art. Okay now what we have here is a running cat. Cheetah I guess it is.

Now so I'm gonna go through this several times and then we're gonna look at one that's a stuffed one and talk and relate and things. So the first thing that we go through - and this is the basic procedure that we follow when we're doing the drawing and we take and through. I'm taking and basically hitting the points that we have in common. Coming through and you look at the mice you're gonna see - we're gonna be drawing some mice - and you're gonna see I'm doing precisely the same thing. Notice I'm drawing very lightly

and that's giving me a chance to take and adjust so there's no difference between what I'm doing with this and what I'm gonna be doing drawing a human. Now scapula - again it's coming up. Comes forward, thinking of the big pattern, thinking of going across, okay and I'm dealing with the pattern of how the limbs go. It's feeling the pattern. As we take and go through. And we can see the hind quarters coming out. (drawing) Draw through. We're drawing right through and I do this even when I like I'm looking at the real animal. I

draw through it as if it were made of glass. So now let's take and break it down into the elements a bit more. So now first we're seeing corners of the eye socket. Same thing as humans now. And I'm gonna draw the shape And one thing that we don't do on humans so much that what I do when I'm drawing animals is I go to the back of the skull and try to hit the point - on the horse we call this the pole. Okay. Now we feel some of the differences, like the eye sockets,

don't necessary always attach. There will be things - the nose is looking and coming out, see the shape. Coming through. Now note the cheekbones are really wide. We saw this when we were looking at the tiger. Because they need to have a place for all those big muscles to take and come down and through, to attaching to the jaw. Okay so all of this is coming around, it's all the same. We're coming through and now feel the neck coming down and fitting in coming through. Now I'm blocking this in. I'm gonna wanna come back and

modify this into a simpler breakdown that we deal with more when we're actually drawing. So here we're seeing all the pieces coming through. Notice the ribcage is pretty small in front. Coming around. Now the whole big pattern of the scapula, it's really big, round shape. And notice that the spine is in the center, in contrast to ours. Okay. Coming through. And pick it up on the other side. Now, particularly with cats, when they're moving around you can see that very, very, very clearly. You can see the whole point. Now as we go along later, I'm

gonna take and just gonna bring this up so I can see the foot a little bit better. As we come through it's coming down one of the things that I'm talking about, the actual movement of how the animals move, how the pattern of the legs move. I would suggest that you get a book, the whole series of books, but basically by Muybridge. Muybridge was the standard that was used by everybody for taking and looking at animals. And so that's the really the thing that we work with. So we're coming through Okay now see I'm taking

constantly thinking in this pattern. Remember this is a Z pattern and it's always this angle. Even when we do the stretches it out it's still gonna be like you're gonna have the Z in there. Each of these points now is like a hinge that you're working from. Okay now you can see the pelvis, corner of the pelvis is up here, going back here. Okay, the other side we're not seeing it in this view. Then we've got going cross from here, coming forward, down, and then we're going through here and then paws coming out with claws.

And then the tail by taking and moving out from that. Okay so that's element to start with. Now what we wanna take that that I've drawn here now so then we start to visualize this as a cylinder that is taking and going down. And it's fitting into this box that's been created by the scapula fitting over. Then the arms going back. Now here is where - okay you think of the muscles here. We've got this shape coming down. Okay, one of the points that allows the animals to have is a better leverage system than we

do. For instance if we take and come on back, in other words if I was drawing my elbow you would see that the end of the elbow is right here. Then we go down to the wrist down here. Well if you look at the cat here, what you can see is that the end of the elbow is actually extended this far. Okay the muscles then are attaching here. But that's a big advantage because here's where the pivot point is right here. So you have a big advantage. So if the muscle was taking and going from

here, up and attaching to the scapula, okay the muscles coming off of the scapula or taking and attaching farther down so again that gives them a double advantage so what we see then is these muscles now are pulled down into here. We feel the shape in here you get this pulling out. And so there's where we start to see the actual shape of the animal. They have the trapezius muscles just like we do. They come off, we can feel the shapes in here. Now one of the things that I haven't mentioned it. As we were

looking at the things and if we look at some of the other skeletons it will become more obvious - is that the spinal column - ours barely stick, we have the seventh cervical vertebrae at the back of our neck sticks out but most stuff doesn't stick out very much. But we look at the animals, their vertebrae will stick out in varying degrees. Their vertebrae will stick out in varying degree depending on how big the head is, where things have to connect. So what we see then is a building up in here like this that the

tendons then are taking and pulling through. So again this is something I'll talk about this more later. But then the waist goes in, the pelvis now sticks out. Coming through. The muscles are pulling off of the scapula - off the pelvis, down to the leg. We feel a pull is stretching down, coming through, the muscles are coming through, they're building so in other words the minute you start to take and fill in where the muscles actually go we can start to see more clearly what we're dealing with. So let's take into and look at the

animal here now. It's not exactly the same pose but very close to it. The big difference is its head down and things so there's some variation in this. Now let's go through this. I'll take and approach this as if I was taking and doing it and we'll break it down even more. We see now, coming through, the head going across. Now even as you're drawing from photographs, take and do the construction, do not just copy the photograph. Take and bring knowledge to it that you're taking and working with. So coming through you're taking and feeling

the flow. Feeling the flow as we go through. (drawing) I would prefer a certain level of inaccuracy but with movement and a sense of the action over to what we consider a perfect drawing. (drawing) Now as we go through the - listen so I'm gonna be also bringing out how the various different legs, how the fingers, claws that take and work with each other. So now you can see I'm taking across, you're going through. Now from here I'm taking and adding to it. Now what I do is just think of the structure. So coming through,

going over, we can feel the skull. Feel the cheekbone coming out, we follow that back, the ear is coming through. We can feel the base of the skull in the back. Little bit larger on the other side. Coming through. Now this is a question that I always bring up in class, I have yet to have anybody that actually knew the answer but it's so obvious it's funny, the question that I always ask is what's the difference between a dog's nose and a cat's nose? I have never had anybody who actually knew it who have cats

and dogs and have all kinds of animals. If you don't, you don't look at the things very much. And here I think I'm coming down and drawing the chin. The big difference between a dog's nose and a cat's nose - okay here let's say we have dog. (drawing) I'm drawing the cat already. Okay but the dog, the dog doesn't have any hair on the end of its nose. Cats have fur on the top of their nose. That's a very big difference. But if you don't look, you're not really conscious of it. So these are really

taking and talking about being very, very conscious of the shape of things that we're looking at. Now, as I'm drawing this I'm going back now and I'm taking and coming through and thinking of the cylinder of the neck as it's fitting into the thing. Now if you see this you can see the corner of the shoulder sticking out. And the other side, a little difficult, a little dark, but the same thing, coming across and then what we see in the center here, this is the sternum coming down and they have the pectoralis muscles pulling across.

Okay the scapula now is taking and pulling back and is the shape in here. Okay it's picking up on the other side also. So these are the basic elements now that we're looking for. And so this is - you can look at this you can see that there's actually a platform, there's a change in the direction of the top as it comes down. As I was drawing these muscles here you can see that the muscles now are coming down feel the elbow coming out, now we're pulling down to here, coming through, thinking of where the

joint is in contrast to where the elbow is. Coming down and into the paw. We have the same thing in our hands. We have the carpal bones, two rows of bones. Well they have exactly the same thing. And like I said, as we go through this farther will be taking and bringing out these similarities even more. So we take and we build now. Here I was talking about the trapezius, taking and pulling down. You can feel the muscles taking and going down, the spine is going through. You can see this platform, this shape, the way

those trapezius muscles take and come off of the scapula. Then the roundness of the ribcage, the corner of - you can feel this volume as we start coming through. And as this lifts up, now at this point the pulling back we can feel the waist in here, pushing down and then the corner, the corner of the pelvis as it's sticking out at that point. Okay that pelvis is going back, the ischial tuberosity would be back here. The muscles though are coming off of the skeleton, the bone is coming out of here. You come forward we

can see at this point where we're at. That bone - they have a patella just like us. Okay, coming through, and then the muscles are taking and stretching out. These are your thigh muscles, the pull, your vastus rectus femoris and we can feel in here the wrinkles, the compression that's taking place. So all I am doing is now as I'm going through this is I'm taking and hitting these points. We can feel the bone coming through, we can feel the tendon now coming back and so it'd be the Achilles tendon as this is stretching back

and pulling through. So we're getting all of the same configuration, anatomical configuration that we do in us. Now coming down and later on we'll talk about the differences between the paws. The fingers. Similarities but they're are actually some pretty strategic differences that give them new capabilities. Okay so now I'm just gonna take and break this down a little bit more so we can see a little more clearly. Let's take and I wanna take and make a real emphasis now to see that this is the neck. This is a cylinder. We wanna see this as a

clear cylinder that is fitting in. See this in here now we get the - so this is a box form on the side now. Okay so you can see the differences now. So you wanna keep in mind that you got this real corner here, got this, this is coming down and fitting in and we feel the scapula of the spine, coming up through, we feel the scapula on the other side, and we've got the trapezius. And these shapes are going down. There's a corner here. And so we take and feel these forms then as we

go back in. This paper doesn't work too well with water. Okay. So that starts getting to the point. And so you can start to visualize getting and going back over this planes of the eye socket. Nose is coming down to the side, we can feel the cheekbone coming down, pulling through. See how I'm just walking this in as a series of box forms that we would be exactly the same considerations that we're dealing with as a human. Now here in the waste, you wanna be conscious of the fact that his is coming down, there is

a waist that is coming down through here. But not all horses, or not all animals have very much of a waist. Like for instance in horses, they really don't have a waist. Horses can't bend at the waist. So we can see how we're building this thing up. So let's look at some of the other elements here. Okay now here we have, this is a running dog. Or more likely a wolf. And so as we look at this now, same configuration. Start out taking and - let's see we start out with the head. Through,, again we're

just blocking in very, very simple, feel the neck coming through, pull into the ribcage, feeling the spine going back. And so as I draw this I would be going right around, feeling over the around the surface. Thinking - now one of the things that you notice now if you look at that photograph - is that we have the vertebrae are sticking up in here. So this is - we don't see that on the cat. See this is really much more of a prominent play of this. And as we come through you can see the spine

as it's funneling in. The ribcage again is really narrow up here, is really tiny. Through in here. Then it expands dramatically as we go back down in. Coming through, building around, spine's going back and then again pretty long waisted here. And then we get the pelvis, back here. Going back in. So we're thinking corners. So we come across, we're visualizing where the corner's at here. Feel the scapula coming across, it's in front, it's this big paddle. Now things like the horses for instance they have the very similar look except they actually have an extension. Cartilage

across the end of there that takes and makes it even stronger. Then we're coming down, pull, feel the way you get the shape right through here. Coming across, pull through. Pelvis coming out of here or the leg I should say. Now the trochanter sticking out and we're going back, following the pattern, we feel the heel. So it's very different, talking about a cat and a dog essentially. Not much difference. Pretty much the same. So we need to take and be very, very conscious of how these parts take and work with each other. And they start

to - I guess I coulda given myself a little bit more room here. But that's the idea. So you take - and then if I was to start filling this out I can see what I draw. Starting coming through, we start to build on top of that we start to see where the corners are, we start to fill in the muscles they take and they build. You think of the waist. Now there's a difference here now when you start talking about cats and dogs and I'm just reminding this of the waist. When you look at

a cat, the profile of a cat, (drawing) tends to be - (drawing) the belly, the ribcage is here, but they're stomach tends to be really long. Like in here, their waist, pelvis is here, and we can start to see that this coming down. Okay now most dogs, unless they're way overfed, this doesn't fill in. This doesn't fill in here so what you see then here is with a dog we get the line lifting up this way. Now that's seen more typical, that's the more typical contour that we take and deal with. So you're seeing this

coming through. Where the cat will tend to be a little bit more horizontal. Also some other differences, as we were talking a bit about the skeletons going on. Cats have a much more flexible skeleton. The cartilage in between is way more flexible. Dogs are much more rigid. It's very easy to throw a cat over your shoulder or around your neck. Dogs don't work quite that well. So they're big shapes, differences here that's more where the dog will tend to be - pull up and we start to see here stretching back. Now again, good mechanical advantage

when it comes to the back or the legs shoulders, head, like this guy was a wolf and so we're pulling through. The ears, same place. Nose is in the same spot. (drawing) And the jaw. You can see as I start to fill in the elements, the way the muscles take and then go, it takes on the look that we're used to seeing. That's a beginning. Okay let's take and go from there. I originally started teaching animal drawing, oh, fifty years ago. How do you draw something that you don't know anything about? I'm Glenn Vilppu, I

approach animal drawing differently. I teach animal drawing from a structural point of view so that you can draw animals from imagination. This one takes and gives us a whole new sense of what we're talking about. But all the same basic stuff. So starting out - ah let's take and okay all the same stuff now. Got the head. (drawing) Feel the neck coming in, feel the flow of the spine. At the same time now we're taking and taking in the ribcage, coming through. Now one of the points that I'm bringing this up right now to show

the contrast. Now this is a buffalo. Look at the great sail up there. We're taking and all the vertebrae. Taking and coming through. That is because we now we're taking and attaching all the muscles, attaching on, holding onto that end. So as I'm doing this now look at how far the scapula - take and build up and but we're coming across - is huge now. And then the sternum is sticking out in front. It's a little bit behind on the other side. Then we come down, through the knees. Again you follow the bones. You follow

the bones. Coming through, coming back in now here it doesn't do this so much, it's taking and coming back. It's pretty much an arch going through. And we get the pelvis back here, look for the corners. Coming through. And then we pull the bone, coming forward, back, feel the heel coming down. The other side, pretty dark, can't quite see but there. So now this is the starting point. Now if you look at the head what do we see? Okay, the eyes, again straight in the front. This is like a cow, similarity to even a horse.

You can see the eye sockets, you can feel the nose coming across. Then we're pulling down into the mouth down here. The jaw, cheekbone coming across, coming back, here the horns taking and coming out. Now pretty much everybody's horns come out of the same spot again, just above the ear, slightly behind. The jaw is gonna take and fit in, coming forward. Feel the bison horns. Now I don't wanna spend too much time in here because I want to take and primarily focus on the fact that contrast. We're talking about all of the same stuff again.

Got the neck, feel the vertebrae coming through. You can see the beginning now. You can see where we'll start, in here. Look at this shortness here. This is a big difference now. If you take - if we had a horse here for instance, we would take a profile of a horse. We will see this line coming across here, neck. (drawing) Okay, now here we get a line that's pretty much coming across. Doesn't change that. So but if we're looking at this there's a picking up right here. Feel the pull. Okay this is coming across. Now

a horse has got withers coming through here. But this, what creates this line is called the nuclear ligament. Okay now it's where the ligament attaches to the vertebrae that are sticking up. It gives us much of the look. So what we have here is the vertebrae will be attaching in here, the nuclear ridge will be attaching here but then we've got all of this that is lifting up. So what we see the - you look at a buffalo, we see this huge lump and the muscles that take and go back down to the pelvis. That's

your lump. And we can see the scapula, it'll be pushing through in here, it gives us a corner. We can feel this. Now of course they're building up with all kinds of fur, make great coats. Okay. But you can see the building, the shape of the animal now is being determined by scale, how these things are pulling up. Then as we get through here, look at that heel, the way that heel is taking and coming out this way. Or actually that's the elbow. Coming through. So as these muscles come down, the joint is here. So

what we feel then is again we feel this - the muscle that's coming through, coming down, over - is all the stuff is built up. We feel the trapezius muscles taking and even on the back of the neck, building into all of this. So it's focusing, seeing the anatomy. Seeing the joints that come through, looking at the two rows of bones. Now what are the differences here that we're talking about a two toed animal. Cloved foot. Okay. Now horses, we're more familiar with horses as being with one toe but they also started out with three.

Okay so again when we talk about horses we'll take and be doing a day just on horses. But we start to see how all of this stuff now builds, how we take and work with these volumes. Everything I do you can see as I'm adding to that basic structure. Everything begins with the structure itself. And that's where we go. So to be successful at animal drawing, you have to take and understand the basic structure of the animal that we're drawing. And that becomes an absolute, you've got to know how these things take and move where

they go. Thinking of the volume but what I'm trying to do is give you a simple, simple, like we see the basic volume fitting into the box. This is a corner coming around, fitting into a box. We have the ribcage underneath, we have the waist and we have a box basically for the pelvis that these things are fitting into. And if you can contain, if you can think in terms of these volumes and resist trying to copy the animal. Okay let's take our thinking a little bit farther then. Now we're gonna go through the steps

again. One thing to go through and look at the videos and listen to me drawing, you'll find that I repeat and I'm constantly doing the same thing. That's where I started out. I started out by teaching animal drawing, by taking and having a way to analyze something that you didn't know anything about. So actually by the end of today we should have the tools to take and be able to start analyzing a little bit because you're always looking for the same thing. Okay so now we start out and (drawing) first, get the action, feel the

gesture. Even though I'm working with a photograph, I still approach it as if I wasn't. (drawing) Now you will find that if you take and have this pattern develop it will give you much of what's needed to take and draw from imagination. And then you'll use the particular animals just take a photograph, we use the particular animal as a reference. (drawing) Now I've taken a very, very loose beginning. So now I come back in and I start to be a little bit more careful. (drawing) Now this goat looks like he's been budded. Budded means that

they've taken like the horns. It's an animal that's used in a petting, animal petting thing for children. So they take and go to the zoo petting areas a lot of the goats will have their horns removed. (drawing) Now I don't block it all in too tight, we can start with getting... (drawing) Through, come down. I always leave room for myself to take and adjust and change. Now consciously think of this as a cylinder that's fitting in. You feel that cylinder and you think of the vertebrae now that are sticking out. Okay now he's got the

legs coming back, the scapula - the scapula is pulled in from here. Shoulder is over here. The other shoulder is moving forward, the arm is moving his leg out. So taking the corner, through. Hoof. So those again, I'm not being very tight yet. I'm taking and going through the steps in the drawing. Feel the shoulder, feel the muscle coming across, the elbow, feeling the scapula. (drawing) I try to make - I'm doing the knee. Now one thing to keep in mind too, the goats, they spend a lot of time taking and kneeling on the knees.

So a lot of goats have pretty knobby knees. (drawing) Now here's where you take and make subtle indications. As I'm drawing this you can see it coming across. Right at this point now you can see the - where the waist is and we can feel the corner of the pelvis right there. So you're looking at, you're seeing this coming down, that's the corners sticking out. Now we come back down so now this leg is going back under here. The heel is way up here. Okay now the elbow is coming forward and is up in here.

Okay. This form is coming down. I take it back I think it's right to start with with what I'm looking at. Looking at the change in the color, a thing that can throw you off dramatically right away. Okay. Now we're coming down, pulling. (drawing) Okay now where I go from here is I take and I'm always focusing on the three dimensions. So as I come through now I'm taking and really visualizing okay the center, coming down. You can see that here this is sticking up. The eye socket behind as we looked at the skulls is

taking and coming through here. So this surface is taking and coming out. The eye socket is in here and we can feel the hollow behind it, just like we are. (drawing) Okay. Coming through. Now comes forward. The bone stops about in here. Then we take and come forward, we have lips, through, feel, going over the surface, down, chin going underneath. Going back we have the cheek, coming down. The pull, through. Now all of this, get the zygomatic arch that's coming out. (drawing) Through. I'm taking, consciously thinking now, the corner here. This is going to take

and coming forward, down and all of this is going down. Okay now the pull, the ear is coming, it's folding, coming over, pulling out, same spot. Coming through, around. So take and approach this aspect, this part of the drawing as a discovery process here. Taking and trying to discover. And so as I'm doing the drawing, I'm constantly going over, going over the surface as I'm doing the drawing. And again, you can feel - you have to have a transition from the head into the neck, you have the esophagus. Feel the pull. Now here, this comes

through very clear now. You can see the cylinder of the neck. The way the shadows and stuff were coming down. Now okay, we can feel the vertebrae sticking up. In here. Now a lot of times the - some of the goats that are more fun to draw are pygmy goats because they have such exaggerated shapes. Now from here, you can see the trapezius muscles going back, you can feel the scapula is fitting in here, so all of this is a plane now that's going down. In here what you're seeing is the scapula, you're seeing the

fullness of the muscles now. And we're feeling the pull across, there's the plane that's coming through in here. And then we start to pull down. From here what we're seeing - it's coming across - these are your pectoralis muscles now that are taking and pulling over to the leg. And we can feel the pull coming through. Down to the point. So we're constantly relating these things to anatomical points that we know on ourselves. So this is a corner here. So this is the leg and we come through, you have the sternum, coming down and the

elbow would be sticking out. Feel the pull. These forms are taking and going back and so we feel the fullness of the form coming through. Now you can look at this, you can see now we go over the surface of the form, coming down, going back in and back down. Going through. You can feel the pull here. And as I was drawing this, you can see the corner of the pelvis sticking out. I'm gonna take and look at another here. Okay here is where we get a little bit clearer sense of now this is a

good example now. So what I'm doing is I'm looking at a different view of the same animal. But what I'm seeing more clearly now is the way the sternum is sticking out so we can feel the fullness of this form coming down, which I wasn't seeing very clearly as before. So now we can think of the shoulder as still way over here and so the reference, the critter is just a reference that we take and use. We can feel the building of this. Now we can see the pull pectoralis muscles, pulled across here. But we

can see the pulling down through, belly. A different angle of the leg but we can still take and get a sense of this is coming through. (drawing) Automatically here I'm taking and this point right here for instance, elements that I - whenever I look at anybody's animal drawing, four legged animal in particular, this is what I look for is that the way the Achilles tendon and the fact that we have this gap because the bone is sticking out and we can feel here's where the joint is. If they don't do that then basically you know

that they really don't know what they're talking about. Okay. So you have to feel, you have to see that that is what's coming through. Okay now we can start to pick up here. We can see the corner of the pelvis a little bit more clearly, even though it's from a different angle we can take and sense what it is and the way these muscles are taking and pulling away from the pelvis and coming down. We can feel the coming across where the elbow would be, these forms are pulling in. Through. Joints and (drawing) so this

is giving us a starting point now of what we're taking and working with. So here as we're coming across now we can see also that the belly's continuing on. Pectoralis, ribcage, coming through. Waist, in between. Elbow - or knee I should say. And all of this is the muscles now that are taking and coming down. And we can feel the transition over - coming through. So that gives us a start. on the whole process. Now let's take and look at some more elements here. Here we have the tiger. American tiger. Now again this is a

cat. Again what I'm bringing this one up for is I'm talking about this point here. As we're coming through. As you look - as we look at this, look at the shape, look at the shape of things. Coming down. See what you're seeing there now is the knee, the knee comes down, you've got the patella in here. And then coming through, now they have the same or this shape really sorta corresponds to the tibial ridge. Now we get the leg going back in and then you get the fibula, the small bone that we have coming

down, through here. Well it's really small now. Okay but what I wanted to point out was this. Look at that heel, the calcaneous bone sticking out that way. (drawing) So you're really seeing this thing pulling out and then we go into the toes here, your carpal, metacarpal, phalanges, okay. But this shape here, this is where I was saying that this is where your Achilles tendon takes and comes down. The soleus muscle on underneath that and your gastrocnemius will be going up into here. That's a big mechanical advantage. Okay. And this is the area that I

said that that hollow area behind your leg - and you have it in your leg too but it's nowhere near as distinct - or obvious. In other words I'm taking and making a point out of that. So that is what I look for constantly to take and try to help the understanding what we're Empower your creativity with the internet's leading doing. So now in this cat then subscription library for artists at NMA.art. No matter what your skill level you can learn drawing, painting, sculpture, and much more with thousands of videos taught by master instructors. Our

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most comprehensive art training on the internet. Your subscription is everything you need to reach your artistic goals. Let us transform your art and unleash your creative potential. Start your free trial today at NMA.art. So now in this cat look at the, again, it's that really tiny, tiny ribcage. We can see the head now so as I'm drawing this I think of the head coming forward. I'm visualizing - I started out with a simple sphere, then I go across looking for where the eyes are. Coming through. The eye socket, just like on a human now. Cheekbone.

Notice how broad the cheekbones are. The nose is coming forward, exactly the same spot. And then these fantastic teeth coming through. So basically look for the same thing, feel the way the neck is taking and coming through and then a very tiny, very, very tiny opening of the ribcage. It's really very, very narrow, small, then the ribcage takes and expands on that and it becomes really full. Okay you can feel the vertebrae, you can feel this going back. See now the pelvis is sticking up. Scapula now is pulled way up here. And it's coming forward

in here. You can see it on the other side over here. So in reality now we would be seeing this cylinder of the neck fitting into this box on the scapula, okay, and coming forward. So these are the basic elements now. The leg coming down. We can feel the elbow sticking out. Coming down, the legs coming forward, the wrist coming down into the paws. You build, you're constantly building, you're working from these basic elements as we draw. Okay now let's take and really change pace. Okay where do you go from here? Okay. How do we

deal with this guy? We do it the same way. Now you have to be - you have to look into it and try to understand it. So where I start then is again simple sphere form. Okay. Now going through, looking where the eyes are. Side. Then we come through, then we try to visualize the skull underneath. There's the end of the nose, here's the skull coming down. This is a rodent. And we can start thinking about how this is coming down. We can feel the cheekbones, round, full cheekbones, We can feel this pull through here.

We can think of the center, we think of the eyes on the other side. Okay. The ear is exactly in the same place as everybody else's. Right here. Coming through. Now as we go through the different animals we're gonna find there are different configurations of ears that we can use. One of the most common is that if you think of a cylinder to start with and then think of the cylinder as like an iris flower, that it opens up and starts doing this. Okay and then it's always hollow inside. Now that's gonna be rhinos and

hippos and in a sense also the horse. You find the same kinda configuration in taking and dealing with. Now so if we take that idea right now and we think about where we're coming out of here, see I'm starting out with a cylinder and then I'm following - I'm following the pattern of just literally what I was doing here, except that now this is a round thing coming back into here. And then this is pulling down and so again this is now a similar bit of a pattern that we see over here, we're seeing the

profile so it's more of this. Now as we go back into this, you have to think now okay this is gonna have the neck, it's gonna have a ribcage that's in here and it's gonna have to have a pelvis. Okay. Now so the shoulder is, as we look at all of this, stuff coming out here. We can see that there's a shoulder is right here. Scapula's going back in at that point and the leg is going back in and then it's taking and coming forward. And we're coming through in here. So you're taking and visualizing

this is a corner. So now what I would be thinking of this is I draw that, I'd be focusing, this is corner. We can see all this fur going back in but this is a plane going back in. The stuff, fur, is coming around but the leg is coming, the elbow is back in there. The leg is coming forward, it has the same configuration of bones that everybody else does. Through. Now what else, we're taking. We got the elbow, taking, coming back, you can feel this pushing out slightly. This fur coming around. Now we're thinking

okay the belly. Now as you look at this, if you can imagine the spine going up and if you take and use a little bit of creative scene here you will see it. And I drew that a little too far up. I need to take and make this coming through. Right at this point there is a slight change in that surface. And then from there we're getting this coming out, coming around, coming through. And we've got the other leg, the back leg, coming out of here. So we're constantly working over these surfaces. We feel this

sort of mass of hair that's coming through. But as I'm doing this, I'm always looking for the same thing. Can I find - I'm trying to find it. Where is it at, where is it at? Now see I didn't make this ear quite big enough. By coming through I can take and sort of thinking okay now the fur is coming down, we can feel the nose coming out. And he's got this itty bitty nose out here coming through. Come down he's got full here, coming around. (drawing) We can feel the fullness of this fur as

we're coming around. Got the eyes. In. (drawing) Cheeks, zygomatic arch, things taking and coming around. We take and we can feel the fullness of these forms. Now you can see where this holds up. You can feel it coming around, coming full through, feel the eye socket coming out on the other side a little bit. Fullness, fur. So even as you start out, what you're seeing is this huge blob. Okay I'm taking the lower part, got really big teeth, it's a rodent. You can feel this thing coming down and now we start to feel all of

this, the rows and rows of fur coming through but it's all still building, it's all building on top of the basic structures. Like humans. Somebody that weighs 400 pounds, their pelvis hasn't changed, they're no bigger than anybody else's, it's just that all of this stuff that they've added onto it that takes and makes the change. It'll look different. I always joke about being in California, our governor Arnold was a great weight lifter and body builder but his ribcage wasn't any bigger than mine. I wish some of the other stuff was but it's as big as

mine. Okay now I got this pulled off a little too far, this take and come around. But you're taking and working around. You can look into the animal, you try to discover what it is that's going on inside there. Okay. Now let's take and go on and look at some mice. Okay now the first thing I want you to work with. We've gone through all the skeletons, we've gone through all the stuff. Start with mice and hamsters. I would get one. A lot of people - actually studios often when they're dealing with a small critter

people would buy mice or hamsters and they would have them sitting on top of the desk. Okay, the reason I'm saying starting with this is because what you want to be able to get - and I keep repeating - it's the action. And as you can see, they're not gonna sit still for you. Okay. And so what we deal with then is very, very, very simple forms. Now see I'm starting out with this, this, stretching up, coming through, feel the pull, the legs going back down. Taking and sculpting me out here, here, coming through. Now

it's a very, very simple round form. So now we go back and we start looking at them. And we start to see this is taking and through, through, ears, as you can see mouse doesn't really look an awful lot like Mickey. Oh this guy's getting ready to get out of there. Okay so now I can draw that head a little bit large but when you take and you feel the volume of the form. You're feeling the volume and as I do this I'm very, very conscious of the scapula. The pattern that we're going through, hands

got the ribcage, I'm taking, conscious of the pelvis and so we come down the knee, coming down here and this is the beginning. So now as we draw them, as you take and you should fill up pages of drawings with the mice. So you take and coming through, coming around, Small - now there are certain characteristics, mice, even the meerkat is, that you will see squirrels, be taking the ribcage, their tummies will take on different characters. They may be even fuller like this, coming through, you're still looking for the pelvis, coming in, (drawing) tail, smallish

arm head, coming through ears, so we need to take and do a lot of drawing from them to familiarize yourself with how they go. Se we're taking and now let me take and break the heads down a little bit. What you're doing with this is a little bit more accurate - that's too big. Okay start with the idea of the simple sphere. Now have the eyes and then this is taking and coming forward and coming through. So right away and they have cheek. Coming through. So right away now you can see that takes on the

generic rodent look. Ears, coming through. That's the beginning. Right there. It's very, very, very simple. Then you take and you start to, as you build with them, like we get the hamster over there now, a little different in there, he's climbing, looking at where the nose, eyes, ears, taking - he's taking, got really full in here. Feel the fullness coming through. Bottom. Coming through, feel the tail. (drawing) So everything just taking and constantly drawing and you build, fill pages up all of these drawings. I remember once when I was actually director of the character animation

department at Cal Arts and one of the things we did is we would take and 500 people apply and I remember this one particular semester somebody did not have much experience drawing figures but had some really nice drawings just showing the action of a mouse. And they had so much movement and flow to them we accepted that person. Rather than somebody who was much, much more proficient with the figure and they could render and everything else but they didn't have any life to them. And so what you're looking for is to be able to take

an draw the characters and bring them to life. And you can see as you're doing it then what goes on. And if you can possibly take and interact - get animals to interact with each other as you're doing the drawing you make it up. Storytelling. (drawing) See I'm just dealing with very, very simple, simple volumes that I'm building on. It's essentially talking about building a ribcage, fitting into a large area that's got some corners on it. The scapula is building on top. The head out here and we take and you work with the basic configuration

of the animal. That's what we're doing is you should try to take and do a hundred. Fill up pages. You can draw with a pen, pencil, it makes absolutely no difference. But this is what we wanna do And one of the things I've done in the past with the drawing is to take and actually an animal drawing class I took and rented 30 mice. And I gave everybody a mouse. And they actually had a model on stands or drawing benches turned on edge, put them on the edge of drawing bench. They didn't go anywhere. Okay.

They didn't like the fall. Okay, then we take and we had sticks going across from one to the other that they would scamper across. Another thing that you can do is take two, clear, plastic cups and put a mouse in it and then put them together and tape the edge so that you can look at it from any kind of angle. Put some holes so they can get air but that's another way of taking and doing it. So you're building but you draw from them and what they will do is they will force you into

not copying because they are not gonna sit still for you. And that's exactly what I want. I want you to feel the flow and the movement of the animals. To see the basic kinds of shapes that they take and start making. And how they take and build. (drawing) Look at artists like Beatrix Potter, great. Here whole career was built around taking and seeing and drawing these small little critters. Okay so now I can come back in and I start to add a little bit more and coming through we're building on so this is the critical

part for everything that we're gonna take and be doing is to start with these small little animals build, feel the shape, (drawing) see how they relate to each other, look at the fullness of the belly, try to see the slight differences from one to the next and we go from there. But it's all building one simple volume on top of another simple volume. Anyway so next week, take and do lots of drawings of mice. And then we're gonna keep expanding the animals as we take and build up. Okay this has been a good start and

let's get on with it. I originally started teaching animal drawing, oh, fifty years ago. How do you draw something that you don't know anything about? I'm Glenn Vilppu , I approach animal drawing differently. I teach animal drawing from a structural point of view so that you can draw animals from imagination.