Force: Animal Drawing: Animal locomotion and design concepts for animators

Force Drawing Series #4

by Michael D. Mattesi

Many artists are unsure how to bridge the gap between the many basic 'how to draw' books and the more advanced ones dealing with the esoteric details of composition, perspective and anatomy. Animal Drawing is the comprehensive guide to developing artistic animals that are creative, dynamic and anatomical, bridging the gap between foundational art and advanced techniques. Artists and animators alike all find animal inspiration when animating characters- be they human or inhuman. For a unique 'larger than life' character, readers will learn to apply the unique facets of animal movement, locomotion, expressions, facial features, physical build and personality to their traditional and digital art. Readers will also adapt key industry tricks and techniques to personify animal animations with key characteristics of a human's face. Explore the practical application of force theories and learn from today's leading character designers with the included artist interviews and an extended video tutorial via www.drawingforce.com.

Genres: Art, Drawing, Reference, Design, Nonfiction

222 pages, Paperback

First published January 11, 2011

Reviews

[Parka · Rating 5 out of 5]

(More pictures of the book on my blog)

The is the third book in the Force series, the other two being Force: Dynamic Life Drawing for Animators and Force: Character Design from Life Drawing.

The two earlier books were on drawing humans. In this book, the similar concept of understanding and using force is used, this time for the goal of making animal drawings lively and natural.

The book is theory based. It aims to give readers a broader understanding of how force works in animals. With some simple rules, the knowledge can be transferred to drawing other animals.

The animals covered are arranged based on their speed, Plantigrades (slow land animals), Digitigrades (intermediate-speed land animals) and unguligrades (fast land animals). Only mammals are covered. There are bears, raccoons, kangaroos, dogs, cats (big ones also), elephants, horses, deers and many more. The section on birds is just a few pages.

Mike Mattesi's examples featured are great, you can feel the energy of animals just by looking at their poses and gestures. I would actually recommend getting the first Force book as well to understand the concept of force better.

This is a great book for artists who love drawing animals.

You can check out more content at www.drawingforce.com

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

All of the important information this artist teaches is in the first chapter of the book. After that, it gets redundant and he just keeps saying “FORCE” over and over again until you wanna break your pencil. Majority of this book is just pictures of his sketches blown up to a big size; although they’re beautiful sketches, I think the book could be smaller than it is. There are better educational art book alternatives out there. I do like the emphasis on trying different proportions at the end and studying from life, which is great for artists to try!

[Daniela Kazarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Concise book about different types of animals, mainly categorized by their foot anatomy (digitigrade, plantigrade and unguligrade).