Animal Drawing

The books on this page are the best books available on the market for learning the art of animal drawing.  Some of these books might be a little more difficult to find than others but all of them are worthy of the artist’s book shelf.

Click To Buy – The Art of Animal Drawing: Construction, Action Analysis, Caricature

By Ken Hultgren

The Book in Three Sentences:  An interesting history, when this book was first released, Disney wanted it off the shelves because it revealed a big part of their drawing process for making animations which, at the time, was a huge secret to the public.  This book is full of techniques for drawing animals, from construction methods to caricature methods, the book is filled with wonderful step processes and solid explanations.  The author also puts in some examples of finished drawings in dozens of bold and aggressive styles.

Click To Buy – Illustrating Nature – How to Paint and Draw Plants and Animals

by Dorothea and Sy Barlowe

The Book in Three Sentences:  This is the only how to book I have ever found that explains how to create “encyclopedic entries”, or art for the encyclopedia on nature.  Not only does it explain drawing animals, but as well, cross sections, die cuts, isometric ground designs, etc., this book covers everything-brief summaries on how to do each of these different types of design drawing.  There is also fantastic information on textures and how to handle them, from feathers to dirt.  This book is not only good for animal artists, but this is fantastic for concept artists, and environment artists as well.

Click To Buy – Animal Anatomy for Artists

by Elliot Goldfinger

The Book in Three Sentences:  Like his human anatomy book, Elliot Goldfinger has created the definitive bible of skeletal and muscular anatomy for the most common animals used in art today.  The book dissects the anatomy of the animal in great detail, with fantastic charts to help clarify the different shapes and their connections to the bones.  I would suggest reading the book as much as using it as a reference book as there are many great tips on simplifying the muscle groups into basic shapes that are easy to spot through the skin of the animal and many more useful gestural drawing suggestions.