My Favorite Resources for Learning Animal Anatomy: Part 2

In my previous post, I listed two of my favorite resources for learning animal anatomy. Above is a hasty picture of another favorite resource for learning animal anatomy…books! In this case, all of the books are written by the same author and artist, Joe Weatherly. Not only do I admire his traditionally painted animal art, I find his books easy to follow with plenty of illustrations. I say books, he actually only has one book specifically on how to draw animals, The Weatherly Guide to Drawing Animals. He also has a DVD by that title, and yes, I have that too! His book and DVD are very reasonably priced. The other books illustrate his painting and drawing of animals. They have a bit of narrative which I find gives good insight into his method and how he approaches animal drawing and sketching.

I like to mix up my daily anatomy drawing practice by drawing from the structured lessons from Aaron Blaise one day, and the webcams at Explore.org, Joe Weatherly’s book, or drawing animal skeleton and muscle diagrams out of the anatomy books. Of course, my favorite way to study animals are to draw them from life, either at the zoo, or around my home. Below is a photo I took while I was sketching my favorite Cheetahs at the Oregon Zoo. I love being able to sit right next to them and sketch!

Do you have a favorite resource for drawing animals? I would love to hear about it!

-Renee