Last Updated on May 27, 2023 by ellen
If you’ve always been fascinated by animals and mystical creatures, check out my thoughts on The Creature Garden by Harry and Zanna Goldhawk. I love to draw but when I do, I need to have step by step directions to follow. I’m not an artist. I’m just someone who likes to draw to relieve the stress and 
tension at the end of the day. If you want to learn to draw, keep reading.
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Table of Contents
The Creature Garden
The Creature Garden takes you on a step-by-step expedition through the natural world, teaching you how to draw and paint 50 animals in a whimsical folk-art style. Your guides on this journey are the husband-and-wife illustrator team Harry and Zanna Goldhawk, the founders of Papio Press, who will teach you how to make vibrant paintings of beasts—both real and imagined.
Learn to create:
- MAMMALS, including big cats, wolves, sloths, and red pandas
- MARINE LIFE, including whales, sea dragons, narwhals, and giant Pacific octopi
- BIRDS, including peacocks, cranes, owls, and flamingos
- INSECTS, including butterflies, moths, bumblebees, and damselflies
- MYTHICAL CREATURES, including mermaids, unicorns, and dragons AND MORE!
Each project takes you through every step of the artistic process, from creating an outline to adding a realistic animal pattern, along with suggestions for materials and helpful techniques. Full of lush warmth and fairy-tale wonder, The Creature Garden is a wonderful addition to the repertoire of both seasoned artists and novices alike.
The author
Husband and wife team Harry and Zanna Goldhawk met at university while studying illustration. After many late nights in the studio, they discovered a shared love of nature and color that sparked many collaborative projects.
Harry and Zanna founded Pappio Press to give their main passion: beautiful animal illustration. The Pappio Press products are designed in-house by Harry or Zanna (or both!). Both work hard to make sure that all the artwork they create tells its own unique and beautiful story, with gorgeous botanicals and characteristic animals. We like to think that this is what makes our products so special and covetable.
My thoughts:
The Creature Garden is an awesome book for anyone who enjoys drawing. The instructions are easy to follow and they show you the process step by step so you can duplicate it.
There’s a nice combination of everyday animals like whales and red pandas and mythical creatures like sea dragons and unicorns. You can follow their instructions for colors or you can use your own and make them wild, colorful and unique.
The beginning of the book goes over the tools, materials, techniques and how to’s you will need to make each animal. This is a great book for beginners or those that have basic drawing and painting knowledge.
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Ellen is a mom of a 25-year-old son and 30-year-old daughter. She is Grandma to one adorable toddler. In what little spare time she has, she loves to read, watch movies, and check out the latest toys and games.