The Art of Animal Drawing: Construction, Action Analysis, Caricature

by Ken Hultgren

The Art of Animal Drawing will help artists at all levels improve their ability to draw animals both realistically and as caricatures. Ken Hultgten, a former animator for Walt Disney Studios, offers expert advice on catching the essential movement and character of animals. The emphasis is on drawings (with over 700 illustrations) so the student is able to view the development process of the drawing by example. Introductory chapters on the special techniques of drawing animals, the use of line, establishing mood and emotion, and conveying action, are followed by instruction on drawing the skeletal and muscular structure, along with the motion of individual animal forms. The author offers details on drawing dogs, horses, deer, cats, bears, foxes, kangaroos, rabbits, squirrels, elephants, cows and bulls, giraffes, camels, gorillas, pigs, and many more. His instruction on animal caricature is especially helpful to all those interested in the subject.

Any artist student, amateur, or professional who is interested in drawing animals will want to own this essential guide to the subject."

Genres: Art, Drawing, Nonfiction, Reference, Animals, Education, Art Design

134 pages, Paperback

First published February 9, 1993

About the author

Kenneth Vernon Hultgren was one of the great "animal artists" at Disney in the 1940s. Born in Minneapolis, he studied at the School of Art in his hometown. In 1935 he moved to California to start his artistic career. Soon afterwards, he joined the Disney Studios, where he became one of the best animators. He worked on such productions as 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' and 'Bambi', doing model sheets and layouts.

'Bambi' also became Hultgren's first work in comics; he illustrated the comic adaptation in 1942. He also did some other stories with characters from the movie. His craftmanship on comics was noticed by art director Carl Buettner, who assigned Hultgren to illustrate four 'Mickey Mouse' comics. In addition, Hultren illustrated the very first 'Panchito' strip.

Hultgren was part of the Sangor Studios, that, in addition to their production for Disney, provided comics to Warner Bros, Screen Gems and MGM. Specialized in drawing humanized animals, Hultgren illustrated such titles as 'The Duke and the Dope', 'Robespierre', 'Hopalong Hoppity', 'Izzy & Dizzy' and 'Uncle Pigly' from 1943 to 1949. When the Sangor Studios folded in 1949, Hultgren created 'The Art of Animal Drawing' at McGraw-Hill publishers.

From 1955 to 1957 he was back at Disney as an animator. The following two years, he worked on the 'Mickey Mouse' daily comic. From 1955 to 1962 he also worked for Archie Comics and several syndicates, doing among others a 'Flintstones' comic. At the same time, Hultgren remained active as an animator ('Mr. Magoo', 'Popeye', 'The Archie Show'). Ken Hultgren died in 1968.

Reviews

[Kenneth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a number of books about how to draw animals on my shelves, but this one stands a cut above the rest. Having been a senior animator for Disney in animation's golden age, Hultgren has a mastery of expressive motion that imbues even his least cartoony renderings with a personality and liveliness that are unusual in a genre where critters are much more likely to appear taxidermically stuffed. Like a skilled caricaturist, he hones in on the essence of what makes a horse horselike, for example, and how it moves and behaves in its peculiarly equine fashion. Well worth having and studying.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just recently got this book and I must admit, as a graphic designer, this book is quite helpful with learning more of the different animals' anatomy and structure but the only negative thing I can say is that it could be even more helpful if it had more words in it to go along with the images he shows you. Adding some instructions would help a long ways to showing a person how he got to each image. But all in all, it's very helpful.

[Chrissy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is amazing! I love the illustrations and it's very helpful for drawing dynamic poses and even caricatures. The beautiful cover and the overall appearance of the book is another plus. :)

[翰林院编修 · Rating 3 out of 5]

动物画技法
9.4 (91人评价) [美] 赓·赫尔脱格仑 / 付启源 / 人民美术出版社 / 1977
1958年夏，蓝犁在书店发现了一本新书：美国画家赓·赫尔脱格仑的《动物画技法》。他爱不释手，但家里一贫如洗。12岁的他就在重庆北碚嘉陵江边挑铁矿，个头小，又没有锻...

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is full of great information and wonderful to look at, and it's unique for its emphasis on exaggeration and caricature. It helped me a lot with my gesture and motion drawings and with learning to get more character into a sketch.

My only issue; this book kind of implies that each section is divided into "realistic" and "caricature". Actually, all of the drawings some level of exaggeration, including the skeletons and diagrams showing motion of the legs. Many of the animals are depicted (very convincingly) in positions that are impossible in real life. Again, this is actually the book's strength - it was written by an incredible animation artist who used this kind of exaggeration to get tons of character into his work, and it's fantastic if that's what you want to do. But if you're looking for realism or detailed anatomy, this is not the right book for you.

[Stina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm glad I bought it. It's a pretty cheap book to come by online, and worth it to have a quick reference of basic anatomy for several animals. Plus the illustrations (759 of them, says the cover) are lovely and offer some wonderful inspiration for dynamic poses. They convey weight and sense of motion very well. There are more pages dedicated to horses than to the other animals, but there's a nice variety in the rest. Plenty of deer, cats (domestic and a few different big cats) cattle, foxes, rabbits, bear, and more "odd fauna" like kangaroos and giraffes get a few pages too. The dogs included are nice but with all the vast differences in breeds the selection is limited to a few extreme types. This book is not heavy in text but the advice it does provide is helpful.

[TheLimpidLine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book and not your basic "how to draw book." This is a book for a person who has clear understandings of form, perspective, etc. I would have liked to have had some of the forms expanded and maybe even a book covering one or two animals at a time as a companion(s) to this one. This book covers basic anatomy, forms, realistic proportion, gesture. It also has small sections on exaggeration and cartooning.

[Hannah Sanders · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the last page of each section was useless for me, leaning as it does towards the overly-simplified cartoon, the basic sections on each animal are quite useful and dynamic.

The whole of this text is more on the graphic/cartoon side, but by and large the simplifications are useful; combined with some other anatomy books and/or photographs, one could learn quite a lot from this volume.

[jamez · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a favorite on my shelf. Being an animal artist, it helped me learn basic anatomy. It also has a very good chapter on horses and not many animal drawing books will focus on equines. That's a plus for me! The author also worked for Disney so, he knows what he is talking about!!

[Lionel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent and diverse reference.

[Sheila Read · Rating 5 out of 5]

my dad loves this book he can use it to get designs for his leather.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful and well-stated. I do wish more space were dedicated to general process than specific species, but only because the process is so concise.

[Tahlia C · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great reference book for form, action, and figure composition.

[Colin Reid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential for anyone wanting to add dynamism and action into their animal drawing.