Drawing Wild Animals
Sharlena Wood
Class Preview
0:51
- In-depth Instruction; over 206 mins
- On-demand video access anytime
- Bonus downloadable PDF resources
- Access to class Q&A
Realistic Value & Texture
32:26
Meet visual artist Sharlena Wood as she highlights the techniques covered in class. Then warm up your creative juices by playing around with pastels and charcoal pencils! Start training your eye to see subtle differences in value by creating value scales. You'll also learn a variety of essential mark-making techniques for creating interesting and lifelike textures.
The Elephant: Form & Value
29:17
Expand upon the skills you learned in Lesson 1 by drawing a majestic elephant. Sharlena shares tips for selecting the best reference photos, then shows you how to use the innovative pan pastel medium to quickly -- and effectively -- block in the main shapes and values. In addition, start developing the elephant's form by applying hints of texture.
The Elephant: Texture
35:09
Bring your elephant portrait to life! Sharlena guides you through the process of building layers of dimension by adding detail and texture to your work with carbon and charcoal pencils. You'll also learn to use variegated lines, stippling and pointillism to capture an animal's rough and wrinkled skin.
The Panda: Fur
31:32
Learn to draw the realistic form and dimension of a playful panda. You'll discover how to create subtle variations in value to both the light and dark areas of your drawings. Plus, Sharlena illustrates how to apply these techniques to other animals, such as high-key portraits of polar bears and low-key portraits of black bears.
The Panda: Facial Features
19:39
Give your panda personality by drawing in the facial features! In addition to adding subtle highlights to the nose, Sharlena shares quick and easy techniques for using low-key values to draw the eyes and hatching to shape the mouth. You'll also gain essential techniques for putting the finishing touches on your work.
The Leopard: Value & Features
31:25
Build on the techniques you've learned as you draw an intimate portrait of a leopard. Learn Sharlena's effective method of blocking in spotted fur, then discover a simple way to map out the spots. In addition, you'll gain in-depth instruction on drawing realistic cat eyes.
The Leopard: Fur & Final Details
26:11
Put the finishing details on your leopard drawing. Sharlena illustrates how to create natural-looking fur markings using a mix of hatching, crosshatching and stippling techniques. You'll also get expert advice on protecting your finished work.
Learn how to draw wild animals with dramatic detail and dynamic depth alongside artist Sharlena Wood. You’ll get step-by-step guidance for depicting three beloved animals in black and white: the elephant, the panda and the leopard. Throughout class, Sharlena will teach you to work with PanPastel and charcoal mediums that make vivid animal portraits easier and faster to draw. Start by blocking in your animal’s main shapes and get tips for drawing them with accurate form and proportion. Move on to rendering value shifts with confidence to create drawings with remarkable dimension. Then, bring your work to life as you find out how to accurately draw animal skin, fur, spots, eyes and more. Discover new techniques and mediums as you draw powerful portraits of these amazing animals.
Sharlena Wood
Sharlena is a visual artist and art educator whose work has been published, commissioned and privately collected. Her “Endangered Animals” series has recently been featured by the David Suzuki Foundation. In 2004, Sharlena developed an art school for Curry's Art Supplies in Toronto. She went on to work at TriArt Acrylics, where she was an art products specialist and educator, lecturing and presenting at art trade shows throughout the US and Canada. She's also the founder of Shared Palette — a unique interactive art entertainment venture.
Bonus materials available after purchase