Animal Drawing Tips!

Due to a pokemon tutorial found <a href  =" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mgBnznj2wc">here.</a> Which I've done 3 times already. I've decided to start sketching animals....what better way to start then to use the animal drawing tool lol. But I would like to know what things I should keep and mind when drawing animals??  When sketching people using the figure tool  at the beginning i ask myself what lines I need on the paper to catch this pose? and when the time gets longer I start to think about distances of body parts and negative/positive space....etc. So what should I keep in mind when drawing animals??

Lol, i'm the opposite! I've got animals down, but my people drawings need work! I would suggest going for shapes. I personally start with the head, than work my way down, making sure as i go the angles look right. Animals are very angular, especially in the face and joints, and once you have proportions down than you can curve it out a bit to give it life! :]
Also, for fur, just use quick sharp lines in the direction it should be going. Looking closely at references can show you what direction line strokes should be, and that will definitely bring 3-dimension to your drawing.

When drawing animals, I think it's especially important to convey body language. It is their main communication tool in the animal world, so just by getting body language right you can already get a lot of leeway with other aspects of the drawing.

I suggest focusing on the basics first. Try to get the dynamics and energy of the animal into the rough lines of the drawing. Make the body flow, not stand oddly stiff, and don't worry about dimensions and negative and positive space. You'll want to focus on the shape of the animal.

You can try using the same basic sketch stages of a human body (circles, squares and lines) to get the rough skeleton of the animal down, then work from those to flesh it out.