How to Draw 3-D Animals

3-D animal: turtle by Rachel Asher

Three-dimensional animals are becoming the preferred format for animation in video games and children's television and film. Portraying animals as 3-D objects is something that artists have struggled with for centuries. Techniques like shading and using grid shapes to illustrate depth and perspective work just as successfully on 3-D animals that are animated as those that appear in nature.

Things You'll Need

• Pencil
• Eraser
• Paper

Instructions

1. 

   Study the image of the 3-D turtle available from the link in Resources. Look at the shape of the 3-D turtle's head and eyes. Draw the right eye first, which looks like a small bowl turned on its side. From the top corner of the bowl, draw a much larger overturned bowl shape, connecting to the right side of the right eye. On the left side of the large overturned bowl shape, draw a semicircle coming off the top left side.

2. 

   Draw the 3-D animal's neck and shell. The 3-D animal's neck is a tornado shape, coming out from below the right side of the 3-D animal's head. The 3-D animal's shell is shaped like a mushroom cap. The left side of the shell should be obscured by the 3-D animal's head and neck.

3. 

   Draw the 3-D animal's feet. There are three feet visible: one coming out just below the 3-D animal's neck and two coming out below the shell. All three have the same shape as the shell, with three claws coming out of each foot.

4. Draw the pattern on the 3-D animal's shell. The pattern on the 3-D animal's shell is like the latitude and longitude lines on a globe, getting narrower towards the top of the shell and wider at the base.

5. 

   Draw the 3-D animal's eyes. The 3-D animal's right eye has two eyelids: the top coming halfway down the eyeball and the bottom lid forming a triangle shape at the base of the eyeball. Draw a semicircle coming out from the bottom of the upper lid and draw a backwards c-shape in the middle for the pupil.

6. 

   Shade in the rest of the 3-D animal's body. Make the lightest points on the 3-D animal the top of its right eye, top of its shell and left side of its head.

References

• 3D Animal Image