With her unique perspective as both an artist and a veterinarian, Mari Suzuki provides meticulous instruction on how to draw a host of animals.

Exploring everything from a corgi's expressions to a lion pouncing, Drawing Animals 101 teaches the basics in a way even beginners can grasp: the different proportions of various creatures, simple skeletal forms, how muscles attach, and other physical fundamentals.

While an array of animals is included — from pandas and penguins to kangaroos and elephants--dogs and cats provide the template, because we can easily observe them and their wide range of movements. Each step-by-step project is done in pencil, giving the work a genuine figure-drawing feel for the winged and four-footed.