Author(s): Sally Michel

Art and Design

Sally portrays her subjects vividly and with careful attention to anatomical accuracy. As she says, there is one difference between painting animals and painting other subjects - such as landscapes, plants, still life, even human portraits - animals move. You never know when you are portraying an animal whether you have time for a detailed study, or will need to work fast to capture its likeness in a sketch. Her book is as varied as it is practical. She draws cats and dogs and other domestic animals with a skill that is born of her love of her subject. What is vital, she points out, is observation and accuracy. Even the apparently random patches of colour on a tortoiseshell cat, for example, obey certain rules.