Before you get started, be sure to think about your medium. The key is to have fun and create a finished product. You can be at any level or use any style that you want. Don't worry if your illustration looks like mine or not. Personalized projects like this are my favorite because you have more motivation to finish, because it's for you and it's fun. By the end, you should have your very own pet portrait that you can share and admire. The following lessons will teach you how to use photo reference to break down pet proportion, how to sketch and line your art, and how to shade and color to create a nice finished piece of art.

Class Project: For this class project, you'll be drawing an expressive pet portrait using the process I use in my own work. Ready to draw your pet? Join me in the first exercise where we use photograph to break down pet proportion. I'll be using Procreate on my iPad for this class, but feel free to use any other digital software or traditional methods. Whether you're a beginner or advanced illustrator, this class is for anyone who wants to improve their skills of drawing animals. For your project, I want you create a fun and expressive illustration of a pet, it doesn't have to be your pet, using the techniques used in this class. As a special bonus, I will show you how to emphasize pets with all black fur and my process for drawing different types of animals. We'll be looking at how we can give life and expression through your drawings to give the cutest result and experiment with different styles in animals. Starting with finding the right reference photos to learn pet proportions, to sketching and coloring our drawings. In this class, I'm going to walk you through my process for drawing pets from start to finish. I have two beautiful cats who I'm obsessed with drawing, and they inspired me to make this class.

I'm a freelance graphic designer and illustrator.

Pet portrait procreate