ANIMAL ART BY FAMOUS ARTISTS

The following images are animals drawn, painted or printed by famous artists.  The first is a detail from a painting by Picasso, called 'Guernica'.  The bull in the painting reminds me very much of one of the drawings a pupil of mine has drawn in THE CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS section of this blog, right at the beginning - have a look!

You can see the detail above, of the bull and then again below, on the left in the full painting, which is painted in oil, on canvas.  The painting in real life measures about 11 feet tall by 25 feet wide!  Try measuring this out in the playground with friends, to see how big it is.

The dog sketches below are by Leonardo da Vinci, who painted the 'Mona Lisa'.  He was very interested in anatomy, in both animals and humans.

In one of his sketches below, he draws the internal structure of a dog's leg, next to that of a human, to compare them. 

He annotated some of his drawings with notes in 'mirror writing'.

In these two ink drawings of horses, Leonardo da Vinci has used the hatching technique to create tone.  In the drawing below, he has curved the hatching to create realistic form in the horse's curved neck.  Look at the arched neck of the horse and also the back.  On the belly of the horse he has used curved cross-hatched lines, to suggest it is round.  Can you try this in your own drawings?

The two little dogs in the drawing above, are by David Hockney, one of my favourite artists.  Very simple lines and shapes with just some hatching on the chair, to create a little tone.

Pablo Picasso drew this fun drawing of a goat.  Look at all the shapes and lines overlapping.

Degas drew the horses above and has also used the hatching technique to create tone, in the horse nearest to us.  He painted some wonderful pictures of horses, but is probably better known for his drawings and paintings of ballet dancers.  

Lucian Freud is the artist who created both the image above and below, of a dog.  He is another of my favourite artists.  Look at the lovely curving lines in the painting below.

Some of the other artists who have drawings and paintings here are Durer, Rembrandt and Toulouse-Lautrec.  You can see how each artist has looked at the different shapes and lines when they have drawn or painted their animals and also how many of them have used techniques we look at and use ourselves, like hatching and cross-hatching, to create tone.