Drawing from your imagination
Art & Design · Early Years · The School
Real and imagined
OBSERVATIONAL drawing copies something real. It is right in front of you. IMAGINATION drawing invents something new. It comes from your own head. Both are real drawing. Neither one is better. They are just two different jobs.
Mixing parts together
An imagined creature can mix parts from real animals. Wings from a bird. A tail from a fish. A mane from a lion. Claws from a bear. Put them onto one new body. Now you have made something that has never existed before.
Starting with a question
Ask yourself a question first. What if a cat could fly? What if a house had legs? What if fish lived in trees? A WHAT IF question is a good way to begin. It beats just staring at a blank page.
Start with a body shape. Any shape will do — round, long, or spiky. Now pick one part from three different real animals. Wings from a bird. Spots from a leopard. A long neck from a giraffe. Put all three onto your one body shape. Give your creature a name. Nobody else has ever drawn this exact creature before, because it only exists inside your own imagination, and now on your page too.