Great question and you're definitely not alone in finding animal gesture drawing trickier than human figures at first. Animals bring so much variety in anatomy and movement that it's natural to feel a bit lost when trying to apply the same step-by-step breakdown as with humans.
What helped me was shifting my mindset from “copying anatomy” to “capturing energy.” With human figures, the line of action often follows a simpler arc (like a C-curve), but with animals especially in dynamic poses S-curves are not only common, they’re often the best way to express movement. So don’t be afraid to embrace them! As others have mentioned, an S-curve is just two C-curves, and breaking it down like that can make it feel more manageable.
When I’m doing quick timed sketches, I still start with the line of action, but I let it flow through the whole body from head to tail imagining where the weight is shifting. For example, drawing a cat mid-pounce, I’ll exaggerate the curve of the spine and let that guide where the limbs will go. I still place the head, ribcage, and pelvis like you would with humans, but sometimes those shapes shift or squash based on the motion, so I stay flexible. Thinking in 3D space, even if you’re sketching in 2D, really helps maintain volume.
One resource that’s been unexpectedly helpful for me is observing miniature animal sculptures. There's a great collection of hand-painted ceramic animals at
Camp Hollow that I use as desk references. They're stylized, but the forms are simplified in a way that makes it easier to see how weight, gesture, and personality come through even in still poses. Plus, having a few at hand is like having little pose mannequins for inspiration.
It also really helped to pause and sketch from videos instead of still images getting a sense of the motion before freezing a frame gave me more insight into the gesture behind the pose.
Keep going with it! Animal gesture drawing can be incredibly rewarding once you start to feel the rhythm of different species.
