Dog Moving Anatomy 2D Sketch

Hi,

I'm finding it really fun drawing animals from real life.  This is my passion, how to make animals animated in 2D and 3D.

Here are a couple of my sketches and hints from today (1 hr total) that may be helpful for beginner level sketching of fast moving animals.

1.  making a hint at what see in real life.  This could be 4 strokes indicating the back leg. Or if the animal is still for more time maybe can get the torso in quick sketch.  This was extremely helpful.  I like to call it a hint because in the past i would try to draw ontop of this hint and i tended to find i quickly lost the original of what i really saw in the animal.  So i started drawing the hint in a separate sketch right next to the one i create based off of it.  I use some skeleton anatomy knowledge and imagination to try to complete the rest of the pose.

2.  making animation friendly hint (squash/stretch hint,  line of action hint).    This could be a single line, or two lines (i want to get to this level then i could draw animals interacting), or squashed circle or stretched circle.  Then try to create from imagination the animal with features skeleton etc trying to match the hint. (This was really fun)  Its exactly the same process as 1. but i’m using a animation related hint sketch to build a second drawing from.

3.  some pose to pose or single drawings of the animal while waiting for it to return into view again  I found this helped me kindof stay warmed up so when the animal came into view again i could sketch a little easier.

4.  Using tone for larger drawing or minor features.  I tended to find that i drew faster with tone, so with a larger page drawing from a fast moving animal using tone allows me to draw proportions a little easier.   I also like to think of tone as a way i can focus on the anatomy (i'm at skeleton level not yet muscles) and use tone to draw quickly other things like ears etc.

Hope you find this helpful.

Happy drawing and animating!

cheers,
Nate

Inspired by Ken Hultgren