How To Draw Cartoon Animals, Simply, Easily

How To Draw Cartoon Animals can be a lot of fun and the cartoon animals you draw will not mind one bit if you make them look crazy. People on the other hand can be upset if you exaggerate their bulbus nose or their big fat butts but animals don't give a hoot!

In this how to draw cartoon animals tutorial, learn the techniques first, then you will find it easier to draw any animal.

So, first things first. Paper. You are going to need a barrowful of it so the cheapest way is to purchase copy paper. Buy a 250 pack but you can save a few bucks if you buy a box with 500 sheets.

Start with charcoal please
You know you can mark paper with anything really from charcoal, Sharpies, pencils or dipping your finger in an ink pot. Each market gives a different character to your drawing. My suggestion is you start off with charcoal. Charcoal comes in soft, medium or hard. Go for the medium then you can get some nice soft effects by smudging the edges here and there with your finger.

Many teachers will tell you to use an eraser but that is not necessary in the early stages until you have reached almost a professional level. If it is not to your liking just throw the drawing away. Paper is pretty cheap.

Some Important Points

An important point about drawing anything
Once you have mastered charcoal and you feel really comfortable (this may take some time) then I suggest you purchase 6B pencils which are fairly soft. The advantage of a 6B is you can get some thin and thick lines with just one movement of the hand. It is the pressure on the paper which can give you this effect - it just takes a little practice! There is a very important point about using pencils especially soft ones; keep them very sharp all the time and that means the hassle of sharpening the pencil quite often. It might pay you to invest in a battery operated sharpener to make your job a lot easier.

Don't think about colored pencils or crayons until you feel you can draw with gusto and feel confident about producing a drawing you really love. And that comes with practice.

Your first excercise
Your first exercise will be to draw straight and curved lines using ONLY your WRIST to create the line, not your finger movement as if you are writing. Remember, no hesitation--only a confident line to show you mean business and you're gonna draw that darned elephant in six strokes with your charcoal. Yeah, you CAN do it.

The next exercise is to draw a circle or oval as these shapes are used quite often in drawing cartoon animals (or anything really). Again, you must use only a wrist movement and it matters not if the circle looks a bit wonky. You don't find perfect circles in any animal so be free with your circles and ovals.

Below you will see some of these charcoal sketches to give you an idea of the basic basics of drawing and once you have these skills they'll stay with you forever, so stay with it.

At this stage you do not want to get involved with cross-hatching (shadiing your drawings) until later. To give a drawing a three-dimensional effect you need shading or light and dark values. Get your dynamic lines in first and let's go to the shading stage later, okay?

Here Are Your Basic Exercises, Get To Know These First

Three: Ovals

Two: Curved Lines

One: Straight Lines

Six: Ovals

Five: Curved Lines

Four: Straight Lines