How to Draw Animals (Perigee)

This book, combined with "Drawing the Head and Figure," and "Drawing Scenery: Landscapes and Seascapes" is a critical part of what I consider a complete course in commercial art, barring color theory. Many good books are available on color theory, but these three volumes condense everything you need to know to illustrate. Jack Hamm's style is dramatic and powerful. His instructions are simple and he's best for giving many, many examples. It's easy to find anything you want to copy. His proportion diagrams for cat bodies in motion or at rest are fantastic. The animal I was most familiar with drawing was cats, so the cats section gave me great trust in the bear, dog, horse and other animal sections. He covers a wide variety of animals with clear instructions. This book is a perfect example of the "hundreds of examples, very little text" style of art instruction. You won't find many step by step projects, but it's content-heavy. Treat it as a slow read. I could've handled it at age 9-12 but it's best used taken a page at a time, trying the exercises, reading and rereading. It's reread value makes it a must-own. All of Jack Hamm's art instruction books are the sort that demand replacement now and then for being worn out, because they're good long term references. No matter how good I get at drawing, there's always something new to learn. At a bargain price under $10, this is a good investment in your future as an artist, whether you're a goal driven future professional, a hobbyist, already a pro artist. It isn't an easy read, but it's a well indexed easy reference. The only comparable animal drawing book I've read is Charles R. Knight's "Animal Drawing: Anatomy and Action for Artists." They complement each other well because Knight goes a little deeper into natural history, fur patterns and textures and details -- while Hamm gives a lot more on motion, proportion and general drawing techniques valuable if you're drawing the human animal or anything else. I recommend it without reservation.

How to Draw Animals by Jack Hamm is not just another book on how to draw animals, it’s probably the best one. Generally books on drawing animals show you how to do it with balls and boxes or with bones and muscles. I learn the bones and muscles method, but later found my work improved when I used the balls and boxes, especially when it came to capturing movement. This book uses both methods. It also has loads of goodies like diagrams of how Tiger stripes work and the differences between a Tiger’s noise and a Lions. I found some of the shading techniques for drawing fur really useful and the elephant eye lashes fascinating. Perhaps the best thing about the book is the number of animals it covers. From Hippos to Sloats and some other creatures that I had no idea even existed.

It's a How to drawing book by Jack Hamm. It doesn't get better. Whether you say it was experience with unknown animations like bugs bunny, or drawing on one of the first How to draw TV shows before they recorded shows, or 8 years of Academy and University schooling and two degrees, or a nickname of his to a few, 'master of the pencil'(alluding to not wasting a single pencil stroke), he was something else and is mostly remembered for his simple teaching books which point out lots of things, like the muscles in the face associated with expressions in his cartooning book, and so many other things. My child likes Jack Hamm because his simplifications in his how to draw people book in steps to get to a real drawing look just like a base to a lot of the anime characters she sees drawn from people who weren't even born before the book was translated into Japanese and Chinese. My child has gotten more picky recently, starting to notice reuse of characters with only a color, hairstyle, facial expression changes. I don't give my child any books by any other author, just references and this guy's how tos.

My area of drawing is horses and people. Other animals are fascinating but horses are the focus. This book does a great job of giving various angles and information of underlying muscles which helps with perspective and accuracy. THANK YOU for an awesome book. Probably not for average beginner. My tween said it was too complicated and she is a good artist.

Good explanation towards how the layouts and forms are made. Needs more into detailing on subject matter. What it has is great, where the book breakdowns structural firms and fur textures. Just wished it had a more material in it. It's a more is better, (don't leave me hanging) kind of subject. The resulting sketches are more abstract, rather than realism based. So if your expecting to read this and make a jump to photorealism. You're kidding yourself. Overall a great quick read. Cuts to the point, and covers a good variety of animal types.

From page one the detail and explanations in this book are better than any book I've looked at in my 50 years of drawing and painting. It is thorough and breaks down basic animal bodies first before getting into drawing techniques for each individual animal. This is perfect because no animal is ever exactly like a picture looks. The pages are kind of thin and cheaply made but the information is worth its weight and gold.

Excelente libro

Assim como os outros livros do Jack Hamm, esse aqui é bom e barato. Não vai ter tudo aí, mas é uma boa companhia para o tópico de desenho de animais. Não é o suprassumo da área, mas também não chega a ser um desperdício de dinheiro. Os livros desse autor são engraçados, pois apesar das poucas páginas, ele preenche cada centímetro das folhas com uma infinidade de desenhos; chega a dar a impressão que o livro tem mais folhas do que na realidade tem. O maior exemplo disso é o "Cartooning the Head & Figure". Deve ter mais de 300 desenhos aquilo O.O

Libro molto bello, sintetico e ricco di contenuti. Per chi vuole disegnare mammiferi è perfetto anche perché altri animali non ci sono. Ottima la parte dedicata ai cavalli, soprattutto ai movimenti. Felini sono messi a confronto per evidenziare le differenze nella rappresentazione. Nasi, occhi, orecchie,zampe di diversi animali sulla stessa pagina offrono una buona panoramica a "colpo d'occhio". Buon acquisto sia per adulti che per i bambini appassionati del disegno degli animali che aspirino andare oltre i disegni di un 5-enne...

Ich hatte schon früher auch Tier-Zeichenbücher aber leider lernte man immer ein bestimmtes Bild Schritt-für-Schritt zu bewerkstelligen. Das eigentliche Verständnis für die Anatomie wird meistens wenig bis gar nicht behandelt. Bei DIESEM Buch aber nicht. Jedes Tier wird in seinen Proportionen erklärt, Vergleiche zwischen Artgenossen aufgestellt. Das Verständnis wird gefördert, wenn man diese Prinzipien lernt dann kann man es tatsächlich schaffen das Tier aus unterschiedlichen Winkeln/Perspektiven darzustellen. Ich habe ewig mit Pferde-Proportionen gekämpft, hier gibt es konkrete Anweisungen wie ein Pferd "funktioniert". Wie bei den anderen Jack-Hamm Büchern wird alles anschaulich dargestellt und mit Illustrationen erklärt. Man muss sich nicht unbedingt durch die englischen Texte wälzen, doch wenn man das tut, erkennt man dass diese locker flockig verfasst wurden. (Also kein Anatomie-Fachjargon und auch keine "Geschwafel")

Clearly the best book for anyone learning how to draw. The book does give step by step instructions, notes, and strategies for drawing different animals but its good even for biology students! Anatomically correct muscles and bones are included in the sketches and help to recreate realistic animals. I reccomend Jack Hamm books to anyone learning how to draw

I bought this book from Amazon last year - I can't remember the price, but it was an absolute bargain. It's not huge but it's packed for of content over its 119 pages or so, rather than having lots of extra white space for aesthetics. Being an older book, some of the writing is a little bit wordier than it needs to be but having looked at so many animal drawing books, this has to be my favourite (the Wetherley one also looks great though I'm not about to pay £50 to find out). The book covers a good range of animals but it's not a substitute for a detailed anatomy book. Conversely, it has immense value in that it not only shows the bones and muscles of some major animals such as the horse and cow, but also shows gesture and proportion. The drawing guides and box forms really help you ensure how to get your lay-in correct and this is something I've found missing even from animal drawing courses online taught by well-known instructors. If you want to be able to draw animals from imagination and not be slave to reference photos, this book will provide some great foundations. The book is also very helpful in showing individual animal details - comparisons of eyes noses, ears and so on. While no volume can ever cover every animal, you can see smaller drawings depicting various species within the same animal family to help you adjust your mainframe accordingly. For the price, you absolutely cannot beat it - well worth it (as per many of Jack Hamm's books)!