Drawing Wildlife

This is a wonderful book and most definitely my style of learning. The sketched are gorgeous and the text is short and compact with just enough information to allow your creativity to flow. With this being said if you are looking for a step by step book this is not it, however if you have a natural nack for drawing it could work for you. I can't wait to work with it.

NOTE: First two images are pages from "How to Draw Wildlife" book, third shows "How to Draw Animals" from same author, and last photo shows a page from the other book. I love this author as she goes into great detail on how to accurately understand and capture the forms of animals. But.. this is not showing you how to draw said animals step by step. This book will show you her studies on the basic shapes to create drawings of the animals, understand their physical forms, etc. That being said beginner artists may need a book that guides you a little more.. I recommend this for intermediate artists to improve on already formed skills. I do also think her other book "How to Draw Animals" goes into even more detail on drawing and is a better book to start off with before diving into this one. Hope this review is helpful!! <3

J.C. Amberlyn is a fine wildlife artist whom I have been watching evolve for almost 10 years, both for her nature art and her cartoon characters (love you, Space Chicken and Space Weasel!). This book does not tell you the magic secret of J.C. Amberlyn's incredibly lifelike animal art--that spark that animates each and every one of her drawings, no matter if it's unfinished or not. But it's the closest she can come, and she shares her unique artistic viewpoint and her 20+ years of wildlife studies with you with no holds barred. I understand that the publishers cut out a lot of her discourse on each animal's habits--too bad, because that was as entertaining as the drawing lessons in the preview edition I read some months ago. A second book, please, with the edited materials and more? But I digress. I am not an artist. I have trouble with stick figures. However, "Drawing Wildlife" gave even me some hope that with a little (lot!) of practice, I can draw something that someone besides my husband will recognize. My first bear (p.86) was actually overtly bear-esque, in fact. My daughter, who draws well, did even better, and my mother, who draws even better than my daughter, produced a wonderful bear on her first try from Amberlyn's directions. Amberlyn uses traditional art teaching methods such as uniting shapes with lines to form a coherent whole--except, when she's doing it, that cougar that consists of 1 circle, 4 lines, 2 rectangles, one triangle and 3 ellipses already has an animated, lifelike pose. As I said, magic! (See page 54). Also, I don't know how she does it, but no matter how unfinished the drawing around them, the eyes she produces stare at you right from the page (pp 22, 34). That's the wonder of J.C. Amberlyn, and although I can't make it happen yet, as I said--this book gives me hope! I can't recommend it highly enough for those who actually can draw. I think you'll see your own magic flow from your pencil in very short order. Way to go, J.C. Amberlyn! P.S. If you have never looked at J.C. Amberlyn's nature art or her cartoons, do yourself a favor and find her online.

This book should be purchased (or borrowed) by people who already have some basic founding skills in drawing wildlife, or life in general. It does start you out with circles, cones and boxes, but it then jumps straight to detail. So, if you're not that far yet in the process, don't buy this, or you won't learn anything from it, for it is the next stage in developing your talent! The instructions are somewhat limited, but again, the book assumes you're already learned in the drawing process. The illustrations are nice, starting with bone and muscle structure, which teaches you where hollows and points are underneath all that fur and that fluffy animals are not just a big pile of it. They are also simple enough to make you feel like you are on the same level, without overwhelming you with tiny details and "I could never draw that" illustrations that you find in some books. The information given about each particular species and families of animals are keen and teach you how they would behave naturally (very good information for drawing action poses!). It also advises to go to parks and zoos to observe your subject, to get a feel of how they move and act. The author also encourages the artist to "let loose" once in a while and add some style and flair to their drawings (think Disney animals!). Overall, a very good piece of learning material that I think most young artists should have within their reach (I am 20).

I bought this, to learn the body of an animal, and to learn how to draw them, and this did the trick! It gives great information and examples, and even a few full tutorials on how to draw an animal, such as the deer on the front cover ( see the image ). It does not tell about birds, or lions, or a many other of animals, but if he has another book on the other animals, i am sure to buy them! A few parts though, Ex. the wolverine, and a many few others, it doesn't give the anatomy of the animal, just a paragraph or two of information or description of the animal, with maybe an image ( most of them have a drawing , but only a few , such as two or three have no image ). I say it is worth the price, and if you have any questions on what animals are in the book it shows you, please message me or so, and i will be glad to help you.

Love the in depth description of the different groups of wild animals. Love the perspective & presentation of drawing from angles... It is a wonderful book to guide novice painter who is attempting drawing of wild animals.

excellent

Beautifully illustrated, with a brief introduction to each animal. Very well organised, with animals classed group wise. Excellent paper quality. What more does want? Just loved the book. Bought to learn deer drawing, but now it's inspired me to even draw squirrels!

Really like this book and will refer to it often. For my animal I use pencil drawing, colour pencil art, acrylic and pastel.

Fabulous. Daughter loves