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English, Spanish, 4 more
French, German, Italian, Portuguese
English, Spanish,
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French [Auto], German [Auto], Italian [Auto], B. Indonesia [Auto], Japanese [Auto], Portuguese, Polish [Auto], Turkish [Auto]
Lauren is a character designer from the USA, known for creating ‘Coffeedraws’ and her comical cartoons of animals and people. She is a co-host of MerMay on Instagram.
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English, Spanish , 4 more 
English, Spanish , 8 more
Craft adorable fur babies using the power of simple shapesTurn real-life references into loveable cartoon creaturesMaster essential, beginner-friendly anatomy rules for cats and dogsCreate a kaleidoscope of expressions for your pet, letting their personality come aliveExplore a dazzling array of poses, from high-energy dynamism to calm and curious charmExperiment with age, gender, and personality to give your characters the ultimate makeoverUnlock your essential toolkit of brushes, settings, and shortcuts for pet masterpiecesElevate your artwork with insider secrets, making your furry friends dance off the page!Learn the art of creating compositions that speak to the soul and draw the viewer inDive into the world of 3d magic, adding shadows and highlights for an enchanting depthAdd authentic texture to your artwork to create a charming, traditional feelBoost your confidence in creating cute and furry animals from scratch.
Drawing animals can seem incredibly tricky, particularly for beginners. It’s not uncommon for artists to feel stuck in capturing an animal’s unique anatomy and flounder when attempting to draw vibrant poses and expressions.
If you feel frustrated and feel held back in your creative pursuits, we’ve tailored the perfect solution for you! Get ready to embark on an engaging adventure of artistic development!
This immersive course was designed specifically to boost your confidence in creating cute, furry friends from scratch. Whether it’s mastering feline and canine anatomy, nailing dynamic poses, or capturing those adorable expressions, this course has got you covered!
With expert guidance and innovative techniques, Lauren Barger leads you through a transformative journey that will elevate your art, empowering you to create fluffy companions that leap off the page and capture hearts like never before.
Lauren shares insider tips and secrets and reveals her own methods and tools that will make drawing cats and dogs a breeze! From easy perspective lines to simple bean shapes, straight-forward silhouettes to clear lines of action, you’ll have tons of powerful tools at your disposal to make your artwork truly stand out!
Gain confidence with each step as you follow a clear illustration process and pick up tricks of the trade! At the end of this course, you’ll possess the skills to bring your cartoon animals to life in ways you never thought possible, leaving your friends and family in awe!
Enroll now, and watch your artistic dreams become a reality!
1+ Hours of on-demand videos
9 Assignments (PDF)
7 Cheat sheets/guides
8 Process images
Bonus material
Certificate of Completion
The key to artistic development is constant practice and stepping out of your comfort zone. Lauren Barger will help do just that in this course!
She LOVES drawing animals and designed this course to give you the confidence and solid techniques needed to draw them too! Buckle up for a thrilling artistic journey!
Get ready for a fun exploration of basic tools, brushes, and Procreate settings that will ignite your creativity and set you up for drawing heartwarming pets.
Lauren summarizes all the steps involved to creating a character, using an adorable doggo to demonstrate each one. Awwww!
You’ll take a quick dive into the art of using layers confidently, sketch with lightning speed, and add a splash of vivid colors and enchanting shadows for an eye-popping 3D effect!
In this lesson, you’ll discover how using references can level up your artwork, ensuring it remains fresh and original.
This initial stage of gathering references and important info (eg: pet’s gender, age, and personality), sets you up for success and helps prevent pesky problems down the road.
Lauren also shares some Procreate wizardry, guiding you on how to set everything up for a seamless and delightful artistic journey.
Get your pencils ready! In this fascinating lesson, you’ll discover the art of simplifying animal anatomy, a crucial skill that will allow you to stylize and manipulate your creatures effortlessly.
Lauren will show you how to break down complex forms into manageable shapes, starting from the core line of action, to basic circles, to bean shapes and more!
She uses several fun examples on dogs and cats to demonstrate these steps and gives tips on what to focus on. You won’t want to miss it!
Lauren guides you through the art of bringing your furry friends to life with a range of emotions.
Learn how to create convincing expressions on animals by manipulating their features to be more human-like, using squash and stretch techniques for dynamic effects, and masterfully working with shape language.
With the easy methods taught in this lesson, you’ll be able to effortlessly convey a myriad of emotions in your animals, as well as femininity and masculinity, youth and age, innocence and seductiveness and more!
In this lesson, you’ll get professional insights into increasing visual appeal and readability in your illustration. Lauren introduces you to handy thumbnail sketches as a quick and efficient way to explore multiple ideas, encouraging unbridled creativity!
Under her guidance, you’ll learn to flesh out pose variations for a canine and feline character, analyzing the pros and cons of each one and evaluating what’s working and what’s not.
Lauren also shows you how to achieve balanced compositions by using the rule of thirds, identifying focal points, maintaining clear silhouettes and more insider tips.
Enjoy a lovely process video of a complete cat and dog illustration demonstrating the topics covered in previous lessons.
Get ready to embark on the exploration stage of illustration: sculpting a character pose! With Lauren’s expert guidance, you will build on your chosen thumbnail sketch, refining it into professional, clean line work.
You’ll learn how to nail down a pose and placement of body parts, avoid common pitfalls, discover inking techniques and lots of other fun stuff!
We’re getting to the real exciting part: Colors and shading!! Follow along with Lauren in her easy-as-pie method for painting your sketch from the ground up.
Explore the art of adding depth and dimension to your pet illustration through the expert use of shadows and highlights, making it more visually captivating.
As a final touch, you’ll learn cool additions, such as adding a noise layer, enhancing highlights with color dodge, shading with cool tones and more, to elevate the overall quality of your artwork!
Congratulations on completing this course! You are now ready to unleash the hidden potential of your art with your newfound confidence and mastery of creature design skills!
Looking forward to seeing the endearing, unforgettable characters that you’ll create!
Course rating
(Based on 155 reviews)
Thank you for your review, Charlie! Thanks to your feedback and that of other students, we just updated the dog and cat anatomy lesson. It's a lot more detailed now (19 min). Hope it helps :)
1 course
Lauren is a character designer based in Charlotte, NC, known for creating ‘Coffeedraws’, being a co-host of MerMay on Instagram and for her comical cartoons of animals and people.
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21 Draw is an online learning community where students of all skill levels can learn how to be a better artist. Our contributing artists and instructors are the best in the world.
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Each class includes 10-20 video lessons that are 7 minutes long on average. Most classes include exercise sheets, assignments, and layered PSD or PNG files.
Some classes include the ability to chat with the instructor in a public forum, e.g. if you want feedback on your artwork.
Yes! When you complete a 21 Draw course, you will receive a certificate of completion, which you can download and share with your friends, relatives, co-workers, and potential employers!
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Many lessons in our courses apply to both digital and traditional art. In a few tutorials, digital drawing software, e.g. Photoshop or Procreate for iPad is required. However, for the majority of lessons it is more about the underlying concepts and all that is needed is a pen and paper.
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