How to Draw Jungle Animals

Whether you prefer the realism of a photograph in "National Geographic" or the illustrative style of Disney's "Jungle Book" movie, it can be a unique challenge to capture the wildlife of the jungle, particularly if you're attempting to recreate animals in motion. However, with a few simple techniques, you can master the basics of drawing jungle animals.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Drawing pencils (B and 2B)
• Eraser
• Heavy white drawing paper (recommended 50# or heavier)
• Reference photographs or illustrations

1. Select an image to work from that reflects the style in which you wish to draw. Photographs or models of animals will produce a more realistic drawing, while working from paintings or other artists' drawings will be more interpretive. Look at your reference photo or illustration and analyze the shapes that comprise your animal. For example, a running cheetah looks like an arched hot dog with an oval head, a smaller oval for a snout, triangles for ears and lengthy ovals or rounded rectangles for legs. Practice sketching these basic shapes.

2. Use the 2B drawing pencil to lay out the underlying shapes of the jungle animal, incorporating the shapes you practiced sketching. This step entails erasing and redrawing isolated segments of the animal until you are satisfied with how the shapes look in relationship to one another. Pay attention to perspective and how the shapes connect.

3. Check your reference photograph or illustration to see the prominent features and details of your jungle animal. For example, with a chimpanzee it would be the long arms, and expressive face and ears. A tiger has its striped pattern. You may also wish to incorporate significant elements from the background.

4. Sketch the prominent features and details of the animal, using your 2B pencil directly over the layout of the animal that you drew in step two. It's okay to erase and redraw. Experiment with drawing lines of varying intensity to draw the eye to particular segments of the jungle animal.

5. Add details such as eyes, paws, tails, nostrils and fur. Fur and hair can be drawn as a ragged contour line or as a series of small lines. Muscle definition can be handled with a contour line describing the edge of a muscle. Erasing and changing the drawing is part of this process. You can finish the drawing with a 4B pencil, which creates a dark, rich line with a lot of character. If you like, finish the jungle animal drawing in color, using the medium of your choice.

Tips & Warnings

• Try tracing the main shapes of your animal directly on a magazine photograph or computer printout image with a Sharpie or marker. Use a light table to transfer your outline to your drawing paper.
• If you draw from copyrighted material, your drawing should be for personal use only.