How to Draw a Jack Rabbit
Jackrabbits are hares of the Midwestern and Western United States and Mexico. The black-tailed jackrabbit is the most well distributed in America, and typifies the form: Immense antenna ears (which help the animal thermoregulate in semiarid and arid environments), massive sinewy hindlegs and large eyes. These lightning-fast lagomorphs (rabbits, hares and pikas) are culturally significant, evocative of North America's broad open spaces and, in their association with the mythical "jackalope," playing a role in colorful cowboy lore. For the artist, considering these attributes, jackrabbits are wonderful creatures to draw.
Other People Are Reading
Things You'll Need
- Sketchbook and other drawing materials
- Jackrabbit pictures
- Museum specimen or living jackrabbit, captive or wild, for observation
Instructions
-
-
1
Consider your artistic goals, your tools and your medium. There is no "right" way to depict a jackrabbit---or anything else in the universe, for that matter. You might be aiming for a detailed, scientifically accurate drawing, like one you might see in a field guide. Or maybe you're more interested in the "spirit" of the creature, conveying its great swiftness with blurred outline and flashing paws. As in any project, pick whatever drawing utensil and paper suit your inclination.
-
2
Get a good look at your subject. Pull up some Internet pictures (type "jackrabbit" as an image query in a search engine) or seek out an illustrated reference book, preferably one devoted to jackrabbits specifically or lagomorphs in general. Inquire at nearby museums and zoos to see whether they include jackrabbits in any of their exhibits. If so, head over there with your sketchbook to draw from life. If you live near jackrabbit country---open grasslands, steppe, meadows and desert are often favored---look for wild jacks and soak in the feel of their native habitat.
-
-
3
Pay close attention to morphological details if making a technical or scientific drawing. Decide which species you're drawing, as there are fundamental differences---including the obvious ones embedded in the names, for example, of the white-tailed and black-tailed types.
-
4
Begin with an oval for the head and a kidney-bean-shaped outline for the body to depict a jackrabbit sitting alertly. The body should be bottom heavy to suggest the bunched, powerful hindquarters. With minimal tilting, the shapes can become a jackrabbit in mid-bound, the trunk more elongated and slender. These rough shapes can focus your entire drawing.
-
5
Accentuate the jackrabbit's naturally exaggerated form. Like most other hares, jackrabbits superficially resemble rabbits but are larger and lankier. Their three most striking physical characteristics---ears, eyes and hindlegs---are all proportionately huge. This is taken to the extreme in the antelope jackrabbit of the deep Southwest, which in physicality and locomotion well lives up to its name. Your drawing will be hinged by the ears and rear legs, which, in their spatulate shape and striking length, create a symmetry to the jackrabbit body.
-
1
