Category: Animation & Art

Learn How to Draw A Cat

FREE Lesson: How to Draw a Cat

Click Here to View More Animal Drawing Lessons

The above video is of course, a quick demo on how to draw a house cat but, there are many types of felines aren’t there? I have a full class on on How to Draw Big Cats where I cover drawing lions, tigers, cheetahs, cougars & more. The course is 11+ Hours and includes lessons on drawing muscles, bones, full and more. I have a FREE Sneak Peek of the class below.

How to Draw Nala

Did You Know that I Designed & Animated Young Nala in “The Lion King” ?

It’s true! A BIG part of the reason that I am so comfortable drawing cats is because as an animator at Disney I have had to draw them thousands of times. FUN FACT: Nala’s eyes are based on my daughter, Austin. In the picture below you can see me doing some animation work on the movie. On my shelf you can see a photo of her & I when she was a baby.

She always looked at me with these big, beautiful eyes and I worked hard to get that into the character. She’s a grown woman now but she still tells everyone that she is Nala!

How to Draw Rajah from Aladdin

While Nala is one of my favorite characters that I created she wasn’t my first cat in a Disney movie. I was also the character designer of Rajah the tiger in Aladdin. He is of course princess Jasmine’s best friend and protector. Above is a quick little video where I show you how to draw him. And the below are a few early test images of both Nala & Rajah. Thes cats were so much fun to draw.

If you are looking to learn how to draw cats people, animals or cartoon characters you are in the right place. We have over 500 Hours of premium, high quality art tutorials & animation lessons. We offer both paid premium courses as well as hundreds more hours of free content from our YouTube Channel.

How to Draw with Aaron Blaise This site was founded by Aaron Blaise. Aaron is an Oscar nominated animator & director. He has worked on films such as The Lion King, Beauty & The Beast, Mulan, Brother Bear & More. Aaron is also an internationally known character design and wildlife artist. In addition, to Aaron we also offer course by several other top-level pros in the art, animation and film industries.

Aaron has spent a life time building his “visual library” and learning illustration, animation and art. Drawing Animals is his passion.

Learn to Draw More Animals:

We have over 200 hours of animal drawing lessons. Below are links to some of the course as well as some of our FREE tutorials available on our YouTube Channel.

Just A few Examples of Selected Animal Drawings by some of our teachers:

How to Draw Animals Aaron Blaise
Animal Character Design Course
how to draw birds
how to draw
how to draw eagles
Learn Animal Character Design
how to draw animals
Animal Character Design Tutorial
how to draw
how to draw lessons
How To Draw Animals
how to draw with pen & ink
cartoon drawing lessons
how to draw tutorial
David Colman Animal Character Design
How to Draw Animals
Art Lessons Animals
How to Draw Big Cats

How to Draw Cartoons

If you want to learn to draw cartoons we have several lessons on that! Including drawing cartoon animals, drawing cartoon people & more. Several of these lessons are taught by acclaimed artist and animation director, Tim Hodge! In addition, we have a very popular Character Design Course that teaches you to draw characters designed for animation and film.

Plus, we have a class on Animal Character Design taught to you by Emmy Award winning artist, David Colman

Learn to Animate

Probably, the biggest difference from our website than other art education sites is the quality and focus of our ANIMATION LESSONS! You can learn directly from Disney Trained artist & animator Aaron Blaise, as well as several other award winning artists and professional. Follow along in easy to follow videos that you can watch at your own pace.

Click Here to View More Animation Lessons

Basics Of Drawing & Beyond!

Cartooning, Illustration, Animation – What do these all have in common? Well, they all require a good understanding of how to draw. In order to get better at your craft you need to understand the basics. We have several classes to teach various art fundamentals to you. These Include Drawing Basics with Ronnie Williford as well as classes on Perspective Drawing, Color Theory, How to Draw Portraits and more.

We offer 3 Great Ways to Learn! First, you can purchase any ART LESSONS a la carte. Or you can become a Monthly Streaming Member and get immediate access to over 450 hours of art lessons that you can stream on your computer, phone, tablet or SmartTV. Finally, you can become an ANNUAL MEMBER and get hundreds of hours of video lessons to keep and download.

Lesson Previews:

The videos below are selected lessons from various courses.
These represent just a small portion of the 450+ hours of animation lessons, art tutorials and more available with our membership plans.

Get Immediate Access to All this Great Content + More!

“I was trained by Aaron Blaise. Aaron is Awesome!”

– Byron Howard (Director: “Zootopia”, “Tangled”, “Bolt”)

European Tour 2022 – Events Calendar

I am very excited to announce that I will be attending a number of in-person workshops & events in the Spring of 2022!

I will be visiting The Netherlands, Austria, Germany & Belgium!

If you would like to attend any of these events please click the images below to be linked directly to their respective sign-up pages.
Hurry, because some of these events are extremely limited capacity!

ALL EVENTS ARE SOLD OUT.

SOLD OUT! April 21st-22nd: The Art Department: Eindhoven

 

 

Description: This is a 2 Day fest on concept art, design and craftmanship in film, animation and games will take place again in the industrial venue Klokgebouw. In addition to myself, there are tons of events including a screening of “Wolfwalkers” with director Tomm More!

Location: Klokgebouw Eindhoven (NL)

Get Tickets
Learn More

SOLD OUT! April 24th-25th: Two Day Animal Drawing Workshop | Graz, Austria

 

 

Description: I will be teaching two full days of animal drawing. The first day will be in the studio where I go over my approach & we draw together. On the second day we will go to the Herberstein Zoo and apply what we learn. I will be there drawing with you and providing feedback!

Location: Graz, Austria

Get Tickets
Learn More

SOLD OUT! April 30th – May 1st: Two Day “Character Design in Animation” Workshop | Amsterdam

 

 

Description: Join a 2 day intensive workshop in which you can pick the brains of an artist that worked on some of Disney’s most loved animations such as Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Pocahontas, Brother Bear and Mulan, among others.

Location: Amsterdam, A-Lab

SOLD OUT! Get Tickets
Learn More

SOLD OUT! May 12th – May 13th: Two Day “Character Design in Animation” Workshop | Berlin

 

 

Description: Join a 2 day intensive workshop in which you can pick the brains of an artist that worked on some of Disney’s most loved animations such as Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Pocahontas, Brother Bear and Mulan, among others.

Location: Drink and Draw Berlin

SOLD OUT! Get Tickets
Learn More

SOLD OUT! May 14th – May 15th: The Art Department: Berlin

 

 

Description: This is a 2 Day fest on concept art, design and craftmanship in film, animation and games will take place again in the industrial venue Klokgebouw. In addition to myself, there will be tons of events with dozens of professional artist from the game and film industries.

Location: Drink and Draw Berlin

Get Tickets
Learn More

How to Draw – Art Lessons & Animation Tutorials

How to Draw Eyes

Learn How to Draw!

If you are looking to learn how to draw people, animals or cartoon characters you are in the right place. Creature Art Teacher has over 450 Hours of premium, high quality art lessons & animation tutorials. We offer both paid premium courses as well as hundreds more hours of free content from our YouTube Channel.

How to Draw with Aaron Blaise This site was founded by Aaron Blaise. Aaron is an Oscar nominated animator & director. He has worked on films such as The Lion King, Beauty & The Beast, Mulan, Brother Bear & More. Aaron is also an internationally known character design and wildlife artist. In addition, to Aaron we also offer course by several other top-level pros in the art, animation and film industries.

Aaron has spent a life time building his “visual library” and learning illustration, animation and art. Drawing Animals is his passion.

Just A few Examples of Selected Animal Drawings by some of our teachers:

David Colman Animal Character Design
Learn Animal Character Design
How to Draw Animals
how to draw with pen & ink
how to draw lessons
how to draw animals
How to Draw Animals Aaron Blaise
How To Draw Animals
how to draw eagles
how to draw
how to draw
how to draw birds
How to Draw Big Cats
Animal Character Design Tutorial
cartoon drawing lessons
Animal Character Design Course
Art Lessons Animals
how to draw tutorial

How to Draw Cartoons

If you want to learn to draw cartoons we have several lessons on that! Including drawing cartoon animals, drawing cartoon people & more. Several of these lessons are taught by acclaimed artist and animation director, Tim Hodge! In addition, we have a very popular Character Design Course that teaches you to draw characters designed for animation and film.

Plus, we have a class on Animal Character Design taught to you by Emmy Award winning artist, David Colman

Learn to Animate

Probably, the biggest difference from our website than other art education sites is the quality and focus of our ANIMATION LESSONS! You can learn directly from Disney Trained artist & animator Aaron Blaise, as well as several other award winning artists and professional. Follow along in easy to follow videos that you can watch at your own pace.

Click Here to View More Animation Lessons

Basics Of Drawing & Beyond!

Cartooning, Illustration, Animation – What do these all have in common? Well, they all require a good understanding of how to draw. In order to get better at your craft you need to understand the basics. We have several classes to teach various art fundamentals to you. These Include Drawing Basics with Ronnie Williford as well as classes on Perspective Drawing, Color Theory, How to Draw Portraits and more.

We offer 3 Great Ways to Learn! First, you can purchase any ART LESSONS a la carte. Or you can become a Monthly Streaming Member and get immediate access to over 450 hours of art lessons that you can stream on your computer, phone, tablet or SmartTV. Finally, you can become an ANNUAL MEMBER and get hundreds of hours of video lessons to keep and download.

Lesson Previews:

The videos below are selected lessons from various courses.
These represent just a small portion of the 450+ hours of animation lessons, art tutorials and more available with our membership plans.

Get Immediate Access to All this Great Content + More!

“I was trained by Aaron Blaise. Aaron is Awesome!”

– Byron Howard (Director: “Zootopia”, “Tangled”, “Bolt”)

Miss Violet Hand Drawn Animation

This is a little bit of animation that I did a little while back. Miss Violet is based on my old dog. She was such a sweetheart and so much fun. This story was developed by myself along with the incredible Vedanta Sproston and my business partner, Nick Burch. I had so much fun putting this together. I hope you enjoy it.

The plan is to fo more of these in the near future.
Continue reading Miss Violet Hand Drawn Animation

Wolfwalkers Early Design Work

Hopefully by now you have had a chance to check out the amazing, award winning film Wolfwalkers directed by Tom Moore and Ross Stewart.
If not I encourage you to stop reading this and go watch it! (I’ve embedded the trailer below)It’s available on AppleTV+ which you can get on pretty much any streaming device with a free trial.

It was developed by the amazing team at Cartoon Saloon over in Kilkenny, Ireland whom I was fortunate enough to get to visit in 2019 on one of my last international trips before the pandemic. While I was there I was working with the team doing some animation demos & lectures and I was treated to a behind the scenes look at the progress of the film. It wasn’t finished yet but it was clear already that it was going to be something very special.

Myself & Nick Burch with Tomm Moore and some of the Cartoon Saloon Crew in Kilkenny, Ireland. 

My history with Wolfwalkers goes back a little further than that though.  In 2017 the team at Cartoon Saloon reached out to me to get some tips on wolf animation and design. At the time I provided a few small demos for them and some wolf illustration ideas.  From there it evolved into them wanting to see some takes on how I would approach designing the two main characters of Mebh & Robyn in their wolf forms.  I was sent an early draft of the script and had a go at some designs.These were just meant for exploration. The model sheets were my attempt to find a middle ground between the flat graphic design of the film and a more 3 dimensional look. I was trying to strike a balance between a more “realistic” wolf and the beautiful 2D style that Cartoon Saloon is known for.  I’m glad they stuck with the more graphic look.  Ultimately, I think the final look of the characters in the film are much stronger than these early concepts but I wanted to share them with you. In the end, I was only on the project for a few days but it was great fun and I was happy to help.

 

Flash forward to December 2020 and my jaw hit the floor after watching the film. Both because of how beautiful of a movie it was but also I was shocked to see my name listed in the credits. There I am under the Visual Development/Concept Design section. This is a huge honor and a was a truly unexpected surprise. Most people don’t realize that simply doing work on a film does not guarantee you will get a credit. Film credits are not handed out like candy. Typically it is a negotiated part of a contract and requires some substantial contribution. In my case I did not request a credit and certainly didn’t expect one.

So a HUGE THANK YOU goes out to the directors  and to everyone at Cartoon Saloon for producing such a beautiful film and for allowing me to have be connected with it in anyway. Now go watch the movie already!

“Back to School” Student Discount Sale!

This Promotion Has Ended.

I often travel the world giving demos & lectures and get the opportunity to work with aspiring artists, illustrators and animators from all walks of life. I am continually impressed by the talent out there as well as the questions that I get.

A HUGE part of our mission with this site is to continue to offer affordable art education. As a special “Thank You” to returning students and teachers I am offering a 50% Off Student & Teacher Only Promo Code for Annual Premium Membership & Monthly Streaming Membership Plans on the site.

Get the code by simply signing up for my newsletter with a valid “.EDU” email address below.

 

Don’t Have a “.edu” email? If you are a student or teacher CLICK HERE and upload proof of current educational status and we will email you a code after we have verified your details.

Continue reading “Back to School” Student Discount Sale!

Holiday Gift Guide for Artists 2020

Happy Holidays!

As we head into the end of 2020 I wanted to share with you some the Books, Art Supplies and Tools that I recommend.

In addition, I wanted to share some Unique Gift Ideas from some of my fellow artists!

Recommended Books For Artists:

Animation Books, Anatomy Reference & More!

Please Note: This page contains affiliate links. Some of which I may earn a commission on. 

Great Gifts for Artists:

Awesome T-Shirts by David Colman

Totems Inspired by Brother Bear:

Handmade Creations by Hailey

Digital & Traditional Art Supplies:

Artists tools Used & Recommended by Aaron Blaise!

“Back to School” Student Discount Sale – ENDS November 1st!

I often travel the world giving demos & lectures and get the opportunity to work with aspiring artists, illustrators and animators from all walks of life. I am continually impressed by the talent out there as well as the questions that I get.

A HUGE part of our mission with this site is to continue to offer affordable art education. As a special “Thank You” to returning students and teachers I am offering a 50% Off Student & Teacher Only Promo Code for Annual Premium Membership & Monthly Streaming Membership Plans on the site.

Get the code by simply signing up for my newsletter with a valid “.EDU” email address below.

 

Don’t Have a “.edu” email? If you are a student or teacher CLICK HERE and upload proof of current educational status and we will email you a code after we have verified your deatails.

Continue reading “Back to School” Student Discount Sale – ENDS November 1st!

Lightbox 2020 Event Replays!

Well, Lightbox 2020 was a huge success but has now come to a close.
Below you can find replays of each of the four workshops I did over the weekend! You can also view SIX New prints that are now available and never before published online!

Show Exclusive Prints:

Special for Lightbox, I have released these prints for the first time ever online.
Some are Signed & Numbered

My Lightbox Event Schedule: (Replay Videos)

PAST EVENTS:

  • MY APPROACH TO ANIMAL CHARACTER DESIGN

    Friday 1:00 pm – Friday 3:00 pm EST (GMT -4)

    Presenter(s): Aaron Blaise

    Watch as Aaron shares his approach to design believable and lovable animal characters!

    WATCH THE REPLAY HERE

  • ANIMATING 4 LEG LOCOMOTION

    Saturday 1:00 pm – Saturday 2:30 pm EST (GMT -4)

    Presenter(s): Aaron Blaise

    Animator and Director, Aaron Blaise walks you through his approach to how to animate 4 legged animals. He explains his thought process and animates for you in Real Time!

    WATCH THE REPLAY HERE

  • THE ANIMALS OF YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK

    Sunday 3:00 pm – Sunday 4:00 pm EST (GMT -4)

    Presenter(s): Aaron Blaise, Manny Carrasco

    Join Aaron and Manny as they recap a recent Camp and Draw trip to Yellowstone. Learn about some of the parks’ wildlife, get some sketching tips and a listen to a few hilarious stories about a group of artists seeking adventure in Montana.

    WATCH THE REPLAY HERE

  • USING PHOTOGRAPHIC TEXTURES IN DIGITAL CHARACTER RENDERING

    Sunday 4:30 pm – Sunday 6:30 pm EST (GMT -4)

    Presenter(s): Aaron Blaise

    Aaron Blaise (Brother Bear, Aladdin, The Lion King) is a world renowned digital artist. Watch as he shows you his tips & tricks for digital drawing that looks like a frame of a finished film!

    WATCH THE REPLAY HERE