Drawing Animal Portraits in Coloured Pencil (4, 2022) | Lisa Ann Watkins

A masterclass in producing lifelike animals with coloured pencils. Domestic animals are an eternally popular subject for art, and present unique challenges to the artist. Lisa Ann Watkins has made a career of teaching her coloured pencil techniques to capture character and realism in her art. A section on materials covers coloured pencils, watercolour pencils (wet and dry), and PanPastels. A chapter on character shows how to capture the best reference photographs to work from; information on anatomy – eyes, bone structure, fur direction – and notes on tools/apps that can be used to help with tonal values. Clear simple techniques are then presented through short exercises that focus on a particular technique or effect selected by the author from her experience teaching, such as a cat’s eye. Answers to common technical questions from students/followers that cover unique aspects of the medium, such as the amount of pressure to use. A series of step-by-step projects then follows, including a cat, dog, donkey and a baby animal.