Portfolio Themes: Animals are a great idea
Draw Animals, get work
Are you an Artist or Illustrator creating work for hire? Do you want to ensure your portfolio is attractive to Design agencies and Agents who commission work for Brands? Then read on…this post will focus on how including Animals as a theme can boost your hiring potential.
In this post we will cover:
Why Animals are a great idea for Brands and commercial projects
Why Animals are a great theme to explore as a creative
Cross-Category examples of work out there to inspire
Things you can do right now
Draw Animals online
Let’s go!
1. Why Animals are a great idea for Brands and commercial projects
Emotional connection: Particularly needed in the context of products/brands that are ubiquitous. How do you emotionally connect to Household Paint? Add a dog. The Dulux Dog remains core to its appeal and premium positioning. Although campaign related and not pack, the association to the brand is embedded in the consumers mind because of the emotional connection to the animal.
Cultural connection: Animals can connect us to myths, legends and key seasonal moments. Examples such as The Easter bunny, The Lunar New Year animal, Reindeer at Xmas - to name the most obvious calendar examples - Animals help us to tell the stories that we gather around, and mark with rituals and customs. These stories will always need to be shared and re-told, with a need for fresh exciting imagery to support them. We may associate Bulls with Spain, Mythological Dragons with China, sacred Cows with India - almost as a shortcut to an association with a place, and an idea of that place.
Expression of character archetypes: We assign personality traits to animals to help sell stuff. Puma - stealth, speed and performance for a sports brand.
Adding distinctive storytelling to products: Highland creatures on premium Whiskey, a Goose on Vodka. The drinks category is particularly rich with examples of Animals on packaging, to evoke premium cues, connect to provenance where relevant, and create a distinctive brand asset.
Evoking heritage: Fortnum & Mason’s in London is an excellent example of a luxury store that uses Animal motifs across many of their products, often to evoke heritage cues and to build in narrative storytelling.
Adding desirability: Walk through any luxury department store, head to the gift chocolates and foods, and beautifully detailed examples of Animals on packaging will be everywhere. ‘Giftable’ items will often lean on an animal motif to simply make products more desirable to display in our homes.
Visual impact: Animals are great for making things eye-catching. Impact on shelf in stores, striking shapes for campaigns - the opportunities to work with shape for visual impact is one of the reasons we see Animals used so often.
Cross Sector & Industry use: Food packaging, household items, surface patterns, Hospitality and Retail, Beverages, Corporate branding and environments, Automotive - you name it, whatever industry or category you think of, there will be a role for the use of Animals in the communications.
Understanding why Animals are used can help you assess how you might use them in your own work. When creating illustrations for commercial use, hone in on one of the above and see how that affects your image making.
2. Why Animals are a great theme to explore as a Creative
Showcase your style: Hyper real, expressive & loose, full of character, graphic and bold, minimalist, abstracted, or child-like, whatever your style may be - Animals are always understood by the viewer. Animal motifs are the perfect showcase for your signature way of working. They are also a great theme for experimentation. Drawing an Animal 5 different ways, in 5 different media, can be a great way to explore your visual voice.
Shape language: I’m always in awe of how varied and unexpected the exploration of shape is when drawing Animals. You think you understand the construction of a Horse, because we all know what one looks like. But try to draw one, and its TOUGH! Few themes provide the range and breadth of shape exploration in image making as Animals.
Practice capturing emotion / expression: Some Animals are hard to draw, because they can just look creepy. And yet, sometimes we can capture a mood, feeling or emotion in an animal sketch, more than we ever could in a human one! Emotions and expressions can be exaggerated, or minimised, and it is fun to explore what comes out in your work.
Range of application: Once you’ve cracked your way of drawing Animals, a lot of options open up. Sell your own prints, get commissions, license for products, create patterns – there is no touchpoint or product that Animals can not be applied to. By creating a series of images, you can explore a number of possible commercial uses.
3. Cross Category examples of work
Branding for Private members club: The Other House by Mariana Rodrigues (Represented by Jelly). Exotic Animals create a pattern with rich, jewel tone colours and a dark background for luxury and premium cues.
High End Brand Fashion: Inxx streetwear collaboration by Genie Espinosa.
Vibrant, expressive and character driven animal illustrations add an energetic personality to the garments and campaign.
Games /Puzzles: Ravensburger Jigsaw by Asia Orlando. Character design for a young audience works on all sorts of products. Children’s book illustrators can think of opportunities for their work existing on a range of items. Asia Orlando’s work is a great example of a style that spans a range of audiences.
Sport: Tobias Hall for UEFA, England . A perfect example of iconic, crafted illustration for a powerful symbol of National Identity.
Exhibitions: Sarah Maycock for The Natural History Museum . Maycock’s stunning expressive work feels timeless and classic at the same time. Animals feature heavily in her portfolio, and apply to a number of commercial projects.
4. Things you can do right now
Create an inspiration mood board of examples of beautiful animal illustrations and art. Pepper it with examples of commercial projects that catch your eye.
Pick one category to focus on. Which sector would you love to make work for? Can you create a personal project directed at this sector?
Fill a sketchbook with only Animals. Have fun with a wide variety of materials. See what emerges. Explore and just play with the theme. See my chatty, in-depth Animals sketchbook tour or ‘snackable’ quick flip through here.
5. Draw Animals online
I fill my sketchbook pages with Animals thanks to the many wonderful sessions available online. Here are just some of them:
- - I loved the recent ‘Creatures great and small’ session
- Hosts wonderful live sessions focussing on Animals- - Emma has a number of Animal focussed live sessions available as replays
Emma Carlisle Patreon – Almost 5 years worth of fabulous sessions, many of them Animal focussed
- – The G.O.A.T (See what I did there?!)
- Art Hang Party – Free to access on youtube, find the Animal ones - they are so fun
- - I attended a fantastic animals session last year, well worth checking out.
Add any others to the comments!
Join the community of creatives working together
Are you struggling to build commercially focussed portfolio projects? Join the paid community of artists and illustrators and access the Project Briefs I have created. Animals is the first theme - you can join anytime and work through at your own pace. We are here to support!
📆 Live Calls in March
💻 Sign up to FREE Co-Swatch Sesh: Our usual monthly lunch time hangout (CET) , for geeking out on art materials together.
💻 PAID Live Share of all Animals Themed Project work! I’m so excited to see the work that has been created, and to share mine.
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I’m Raj Kaur, a freelance Designer Director for Brands with over 24 years Industry experience, a sketchbook obsessive and Artist /Illustrator. Art really is my Work. Welcome! Join the community for Projects to build your illustration Portfolio, and work with other amazing creatives.
What a wonderful article Raj, and thanks so much for mentioning the Creative Cocoons drawing session ❤️! The captions for your images cracked me up btw, apparently all red-haired forget to hang the laundry 🤣
I’m still not even sure I know how to draw a horse, after drawing 100 in 100 minutes 😅 Thanks for including me in your list 🤗💖✨ And speaking of GOATS, yours with the glasses is still my phone background! (But maybe it’s a dog?)