Warm up study: Cheetahs by Berk-shire on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

I haven't drawn anything in weeks so I knew I needed to get loosened up before I started a real drawing. I've never really given myself time to warm up before and it is actually an amazing thing! Why haven't I done this before? After warming up, I didn't have any of those "ugh I don't understand why I can't get the anatomy right" moments that I usually have, because I was now familiar with my subject.

Process:
try to copy a reference photo,
overlay my drawing over that photo to check for flaws,
fix them,
repeat.

It's really relaxing and there's no pressure because I'm totally allowed to make mistakes. I also don't stress too much about "tracing" when it's used in a learning context.

Refs:
www.maracheetahs.org/wp-conten…
animals.sandiegozoo.org/sites/…
animals.sandiegozoo.org/sites/…
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia…