In this step-by-step guide for beginning and intermediate artists, an expert teacher shows students how to see an animal in its simplest form and capture its essential character in a drawing.

More than 500 illustrations demonstrate the depiction of familiar and exotic creatures— from dogs, cats, and birds to hippopotami, zebras, buffalo, and kangaroos.

A noted painter, sculptor, and teacher, Arthur Zaidenberg based his techniques on the notion that anyone who can write the alphabet can combine simple shapes and draw. With his coaching, aspiring artists learn to look past the confusion of superficial details and discover an animal’s distinguishing features.

Preliminary and finished sketches accompany Zaidenberg’s succinct, direct advice on recapturing the subtle strength of horses, the variety among canine breeds, the muscular grace of giraffes, the majesty of elephants, and other innate qualities of creatures from the animal kingdom.