I'm David Derrick, a Head of Story for anupcoming feature film at Walt Disney Animation Studios.
Today, I'm going to teach you how to drawan elephant.
When you're done, I want you to share yourdrawing with your neighbors by putting it up in your window for people to see, the balcony, the front door, the mailbox, wherever to participate in National Geographic's Earth Day NeighborhoodSafari.
Don't forget to snap a picture of your creationand share it with the hashtag #NatGeoEarthDayAtHome.
I can't wait to see your drawings! Thank you for joining me.
I'm really excited to draw with you today.
I'm just going to draw with a pen.
You can use whatever you like to draw withand we're going to draw an elephant today, an African elephant to be precise.
So African elephants are amazing.
They're enormous.
They're beautiful and majestic and I lovedrawing them.
When I think about drawing them, I think aboutdrawing a mountain – a mountain with feelings, and emotions.
They're so big and so beautiful.
Now an African elephant will have a hump righton its shoulder.
And then it will kind of have what some peopledescribe as a saddleback, where it kind of dips and goes down.
Then, you'll have a big pelvis here.
Then, a big stomach, kind of draw in kindof a big, round shape.
Then, on the other side of the stomach.
The thing that's great about drawing elephants, is you can be scribbly, because they're so wrinkly it will looked like you planned itfrom the start.
So, don't be afraid.
Your drawings will look better if you havemore lines in them.
I think that's fun.
So even though their feet look flat, theyactually walk on their toes.
Isn't that funny? There's a big pad under here and their footstarts right here and goes down into the toes and that pad kind of offers them support.
When elephants walk, they kind of need atleast two legs on the ground at any one time, because they're so big, they're so heavy, so they need that support.
They are after all the largest land animal.
Now I'm kind of roughing in where those frontlegs will go.
Again, when you're drawing an elephant, havefun.
Be loose.
Think about just the masses and the wrinkles.
Have fun with it.
Bring strong forearms.
Go down to the joint right here and then onthe foot and the pad.
Here we start roughing in the big head right.
Now you look for anatomical landmarks thatwill help you.
Elephants have a really big cheekbone righthere.
It's also called the zygomatic arch.
And then it goes right to their ear.
And then from their cheekbone, down into thetusk right here.
One thing I learned while I was drawing elephantsin Africa is that elephants, kind of like us, are right or left tusked.
And whichever tusk they favor will generallyget worn down faster.
And so usually, the elephants will have atusk that is more worn out than the other indicating the one that they favor the most.
I always thought that was really, really fascinating.
Trunks are so powerful.
Of course, there are no bones in the trunk, it's all muscle.
Bottom lip right here.
Now I'm drawing a tusk going out, curvinginward a little bit.
Again, don't worry about having too many linesor having the wrong lines, it's an elephant.
He's wrinkly.
Let yourself have fun when you draw.
The ears are these kind of loose thin skin.
Let's draw this tail a little better.
So the way I drew it it's kind of hard tosee that other tusk, but let's draw it in there anyway.
Now sometimes, their tusks will kind of besymmetrical, but other times not.
And it can kind of be fun when they're not, because you can get kind of a different shape.
Of course, when you see big herds of elephants, they're led by female, a matriarch, an old, wise elephant that can guide the herd.
The big males kind of live off on their ownin smaller bachelor groups.
And then they'll come join the herd periodicallyand kind of hang out nearby.
But the larger herds are run by the females.
Again, use extra lines.
Don't worry about it.
Have fun! Try to make this elephant feel wrinkled.
And do a little bit of shading to kind ofindicate certain things when you need.
And then if you want, just for fun and goodmeasure, if you have watercolors, or crayons, you can add a little bit of color.
Now elephants, are kind of grey, but they'realso kind of the color of whatever the ground is.
So if the earth around them is red, your elephantswill be red-ish.
Or if the mud is grey or brown, that's kindof the color they'll be, because they roll around and spend a lot of time bathing inthe mud.
So I'm just going to put kind of a light kindof blue-ish wash over this elephant just to give him a little bit of color.
Elephants are amazing creatures.
They're so smart, so beautiful and sensitiveto one another.
They're definitely animals that deserve ourrespect and our protection.
Definitely one of my favorite animals to drawand I hope you guys enjoyed drawing this elephant today with me! And I hope you guys will continue to drawanimals.
The more you know about the animal, the easierthey will be to draw.
So I would say, look up their anatomy, theirbehavior, and you'll learn why they have certain attributes and things and you can put thatinto artwork.
Thank you very much for joining me!.
