Hello!
I'm Tim, an educator and author passionate about wilderness landscape and drawing wildlife. Over the years, drawing and watercolour painting have taken me worldwide, from working as an expedition artist in Alaska to sketching leaves in Mexico's tropical forest. I also enjoy local woods, parks and botanical gardens and can regularly be seen at ZSL drawing their animals. I teach art classes where live animals are the life models, often on farms or with owls in museums and at science festivals.
In my writing and teaching, I aim to convey vital artistic and anatomical knowledge in an accessible, engaging and fun way. I believe anyone can learn to draw, young or old, and besides being a fun, social activity is an important life skill for thinking, exploring and explaining.
If you’re interested in connecting with me, send me a message.
My Work
One of the challenges with sketching wildlife is that animals are constantly moving. However, a basic understanding of their anatomy can help anyone capture the form, movement and, ultimately, the animal's spirit in question. My first book, "The Field Guide to Drawing & Sketching Animals", fused science with art, providing students with the skills, techniques and knowledge you need to create sketches of animals filled with life and movement. Now published in eight languages and voted one of the best twenty books on nature drawing of all time by Bookauthority.
I’m happy to announce that my book, “The Field Guide to Drawing and Sketching Animals”, made it to BookAuthority’s twenty best nature drawing books of all time.
"Tim Pond's Field Guide to Drawing & Sketching Animals is a keystone book for anyone wishing to draw animals that are both scientifically accurate and full of life. He does a deep dive into the anatomy and structure of animals but with a keen understanding of what the artist needs to see and understand. He has cut through irrelevant chatter to emphasise what you need to get the beast onto paper. His approach supports drawings that show the behaviour, mannerisms, and character, transforming a sketch from a generic diagram to an intimate portrait, the breadth of his examples, from sponges to gorillas is a celebration of the biodiversity of the Earth and an inspiration to naturalist-artists."
Episode 35: Tim Pond – Drawing and sketching animals
Tim Pond is an educator, author, illustrator and naturalist with a passion for drawing wildlife. He has a unique way of quickly capturing a subject with dynamic lines and shading. Tim’s book, The Field Guide to Drawing and Sketching Animals, brings science and art together to give the reader the knowledge and skills needed to create animal drawings full of life and movement.
Listen to hear more about his life.
Spanish edition of "The Field Guide to Drawing and Sketching Animals"
Japanese edition of "The Field Guide to Drawing and Sketching Animals"