How To Draw An Elephant

I hope that my simple guide of how to draw an elephant may contribute a little to elevate the consciousness about this beautiful animal.
What is the difference between seeing animals in pictures and drawing animals?

Drawing animals makes you more conscious about their existence and beauty.

Drawing them by pencil on the paper makes you totally involved and participating on the process of creation.

Don’t you think that it’s incredible?

Let’s take a quick look at this elephant drawing.

Please keep in mind that it is a finished drawing. It may look like too complicated with its wrinkles, shades, etc.

Please ignore such details for now. We shall come back to these later during the drawing process.

Now just let me guide you and you’ll see to your own amazement that you can actually draw even better elephant than this one.

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You can print out this picture after enlargement and refer to it while drawing.
I would however encourage you, to draw this elephant directly from your computer screen.

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Before you begin to draw an elephant, I would like you to concentrate on 3 main parts of the body.
Think of this elephant as a huge snowman consisting of 3 circles in horizontal position walking on four legs.
The only difference is that we will adjust the 3 circles that represent the body parts.
In your mind divide the elephant’s body into 3 main volumes. The biggest one is the belly, middle one is the part of elephant’s shoulders and the smallest one is the head.
Basically, when you capture these 3 volumes right, you’ve got the elephant’s body balance right.

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Basically, to draw an elephant is very simple, but it has a few tricky parts. Please observe the body well again. Compare the length of the legs to the rest of the body. Notice the angles of the legs while the animal walks.
This is a dynamic picture which means that the elephant is walking. Elephant is in motion.
The front legs extend directly from the middle – shoulder ellipse. Draw the outline contours of all four legs.

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Outline the head with the trunk and tusks. Make a rough outline sketch of the ear (only one of the elephant’s ears is visible).

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Gradually start erasing the initial circles, ellipses and join each part of the body into a one whole unit.
Do you realize that at this stage, you already know how to draw an elephant? You have almost perfect contours of an elephant’s body.
I say almost perfect, because there probably are some small details we are going to correct as we go.

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Gently refine the body contours and draw the tail. Before drawing the tail take a look at its length. Where does it come out of the body and where does it end?

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This is the stage where you should really draw the final body contours.
If you observe carefully, you easily notice that I slightly moved up the place (height) where the tusks come out from the head.
I made this change in order to re-balance the size of the head to the rest of the body.
Add the elephant’s eye. Enlarge the picture and see how the eye looks like. While you draw the eye, please leave the small highlight on the eye pupil.
Every living thing has such reflection of light in its eyes and it looks more natural. The highlight creates that spark in animal’s sight. It is very important feature of elephant’s individuality.
You can also finish your drawing here if you want, copy your drawing and make it a coloring page.

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It is time to observe carefully the wrinkles on the body. This part is a bit sensitive, because the direction of wrinkles often determines how each body part is shaped. It is good to keep this in mind while you draw an elephant.
It is not necessary to draw the wrinkles exactly as I did but you should direct them on your drawing roughly in similar directions.
Refer again to the readymade picture and sketch the body wrinkles.

Note: If you encounter difficulties with wrinkles drawing, observe your own hand or stretched fingers and I think you’ll get the best idea. After all, we humans are animals too ;-) click the image to enlarge Now pay a bit more attention to the trunk. Elephant’s trunk is in fact a fusion of nose and upper lip – prolonged. It is in fact one of the most important body part. click the image to enlarge Begin to darken the body. Be gentle. Hold your pencil tilted in order to make wide and weak pencil strokes that will easily cover the body in gray. At the same time you can also put shades where applicable. Always refer to the readymade drawing. click the image to enlarge As the light comes diagonally from the upper left corner, it naturally cast shade on various parts of elephant’s body. Ear(s) shade is the largest and most visible. We also cannot forget about shades on elephant’s legs. Adding shades on any drawing gives it an instant plasticity. Shading gives the drawing a 3 dimensional look. I think your picture is ready at this moment and you gained enough confidence to draw an elephant - any elephant you choose.

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How to Draw a Cartoon Fish

Let’s make your original cartoon fish drawing. You've probably seen some cartoon movies where the fish would be a hero, like Finding Nemo…or maybe the Japanese recent hit movie Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea. (in Japanese: “Iwa No Ue No Ponyo”)

The cartoon fish I drew here is a made up fantasy. I Googled a couple of images on the Internet and find some inspirations.

Yes, you’re right the colors are similar to Nemo. This fish is a girl.

I don’t know why I just made this fish a girl.

Feminine features on the fish’s face are the lips and the eyes.

Also the fins, but I shall explain about the fins during the process of drawing.

Any type of fish is suitable to make it a cartoon. But I think that one of the best themes to choose for cartoon fish drawing is a tropical fish.

You can play more with the shapes and colors. Your own fantasy is the limit.

You are going to love this!

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We are going to draw together this fish. It may look a bit complicated at first.

But you should know me well enough by now that every - even seemingly complicated drawing - turns out to be very simple and easy - as always.

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The original tropical fish body contours were like this. Prolonged head and mouth is maybe the most distinct feature.

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Outline the fins and correct the tail a little, because it was a bit unbalanced on previous sketch. The eye is originally this small.

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Real cartoon fish drawing transformation from a tropical fish body contour into a cartoonish starts maybe here. Notice that almost every cartoon character has big eyes.

Especially females and it applies also for animal cartoon characters.

So draw larger eye(s). Since this fish is a female fish, one of the best ways to express the gender is through the eye(s).

Draw the mouth. The mouth should be a little opened and smiling because that is a very friendly look.

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Tropical fishes have such fantastic body colors and designs. I love these because you can play with it as you wish and you virtually cannot make a mistake.

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Mark out the fins so they look like real fins. You can make the edges a little jagged if you want.

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By sharper pencil lines outline the final body contours including all fins.

Now I want to ask for your opinion. Don’t you think that these jagged fins look a bit too rough? Or maybe even a bit aggressive for this little fish girl?

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Well, in my opinion these rounded edges of the fins look much softer and peaceful. More feminine-like. What do you think?

So choose which type of fins you like and let’s continue your cartoon fish drawing.

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Erase all excess pencil lines. Now, with a simple pencil line draw the final outline contour of the fish.

Prepare your color pencils and we are going to draw the rest of this picture in color.

Begin with the black pencil and draw the borders of the pattern on the fish’s body. Leave a narrow border-space on the outer part of the fins.

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Draw the eye. Remember to leave a small shiny dot on the eye white. That is a reflection of light and it will make your eye drawing look more realistic.

If you encounter some difficulty with drawing of the fish’s eye, maybe you need a small memory refreshing on how to draw manga eyes.

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We are going to make this cartoon fish drawing in two colors. Red and White.

Begin to draw the red part first. I draw it by orange-toned-red pencil as the basic color. This red color tone includes some yellow too.

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When you are ready, it should look something like this. As you see, this red is not so suitable and not so nice as the final top cover color.

Erase - clean the white parts on the body in order to get rid of the rest of graphite dust.

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With more deep and darker red pencil, fill the red part over the previous layer.

Paint the eyelid stronger and mark out the lips. This is a girl-fish. Another distinctive feature for cartoon girls is eyelashes. So draw a couple of longer curled eyelashes.

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Fish like this swims in a sea, in a clean blue seawater. It means that the white part on the fish’s body will be slightly blue. That is a reflection of seawater.

Take a light blue pencil and very gently color the white part blue. By darker blue pencil, draw markings of scales. The scales are better visible on the white part.

With blue pencil, fill out the space around the fish so it will look like a water.

Use your fantasy. If you are not sure, make some test drawings and colorings on a separate paper so that you won’t destroy your original cartoon fish drawing.

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Draw a dolphin

 

 It is strange. When started to I draw a dolphin I’ve got similar feeling like when I was drawing an elephant.


No doubt that both animals are highly intelligent. There is some special aura around them, even if you just draw them on a paper.


Some people still have tendency to compare dolphins with sharks although we all consciously understand that dolphins are totally different species.


My guess is that this is caused by similarity in shapes of dorsal fin and pectoral fins (AKA: pectoral flippers)


If you could see only the tails of both; dolphin and shark, the difference would become clear immediately.


Shark’s tail fin (AKA: caudal fin) is shaped vertically while dolphin’s tail fin (AKA: tail fluke) is horizontal.


When shark swims below the water level you can easily see both dorsal and caudal fins at the same time.


Dolphins can show only dorsal fin if they swim right below the water level. Horizontal tail fluke remains under the water level.


Today we will draw a dolphin in one of its most natural - jumping pose

Before you begin to draw this jumping dolphin take a little time and observe your object.

Comparing to the previous exercises of shark drawing. or fish drawing., dolphin drawing is a bit different.

I picked this jumping bended body position purposely, to make the drawing process a little bit difficult and thus a good drawing exercise.

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Hold your pencil loose or tilted and sketch the approximate outline contour of dolphin’s body.

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Sketch the fins in the following order: Start with the dorsal fin if possible and sketch the pectoral flippers as last.

I recommend this sequence because it helps you to capture best total balance when you draw a dolphin.

Observe well the length of dolphin’s distinctive beak. Compare the length of the beak to the head.

Pay a little more attention to this important detail. We are drawing a bottlenose dolphin.

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As every animal has its feature, what makes dolphin look like a dolphin is mainly its rounded head, distinctive beak and a smiling expression.

We can call it the dolphin’s face. If you work diligently on this one detail, the rest of the dolphin drawing will be very easy.

On the contrary, if you cannot capture well the face expression, your dolphin drawing despite your great effort will not resemble much to a dolphin.

It is perfectly OK if you practice drawing only the head on a separate paper first.

Do not mind about the extra little time it takes. If you are serious about to learn how to draw a dolphin, this will be a very good investment.

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Draw sharper pencil line over the initial body contours marking out the finalized shape.

Gradually begin erase all unnecessary and excess pencil cluster.

Draw clear pencil line but not too strong in case you need to make some corrections that you will probably do. Outline the mouth opening and draw the eye.

Pay special attention to capture good balance of eyes and mouth. Now you have your dolphin drawing virtually ready.

The following is coloring.

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Hold your graphite pencil tilted and cover gently the body in grey. The opposite side pectoral flipper is dark (in the shade).

Mark out the blowhole on dolphin’s head. Keep that in mind when you draw a dolphin or whale, because these animals have blowholes.

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You can use also grey colored pencil over the graphite pencil. It will create a good texture.

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Finally you can also add some – only very little and gentle touch – blue color over the basic grey layer.

Be careful when you shade the dolphin with blue color not to over saturate it.

Make a color-mixing test first on a separate paper or on the margin of your drawing sheet.

Blue color should be really just a delicate surface finish. Almost invisible.

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Easy Butterfly Drawings 2

I prepared a couple of easy butterfly pencil drawings here for you. Today we will draw step-by-step this one - butterfly sitting on a Carnation flower. If you want to see this drawing in its actual size, click the last thumbnail image on the bottom of this page.

You have probably learned already the basic butterfly drawings, the sequence of drawing a butterfly with opened wings, which is one of the easiest because both sides - both wings are symmetrical and are very easy to copy.

This drawing of a butterfly is taken from a totally different angle, more natural, I would say.

It is a butterfly sitting on top of a Carnation flower so it gives you an opportunity to practice both; butterfly pencil drawings and how to draw Carnation flower ;-) In fact, you can draw any flower you like under the butterfly.

If you had a chance to see butterfly in nature, the scene would probably be very similar to this drawing.

After completing these few steps of drawing instructions your work will look pretty much the same…or…at least very similar.

It is very easy you’ll see; just follow the step-by-step guide exactly as I explain.

Click on every thumbnail image they will open in new window or tab in their actual size. Print them out or copy as you wish.

My advice is that you print out only the finished drawing – the last thumbnail on the bottom of this page – and copy only that. Resize as needed.

If you do not have printer handy, take a sheet of tracing paper, put it on your computer screen and trace/copy only the outlines of the butterfly.

Your outline drawing will look like the first thumbnail image on this page. Weak and soft strokes that is very easy to correct or erase.

By copying only the outlines, you set the right proportions - a guideline for your drawing. The rest is only a sort of coloring work (by pencil).

After you have your outline ready begin to darken the veins on the wings (2nd pic on the left). Veins can be considered as a kind of frame that keeps the wings together and strong.

Now observe and select first the darkest (black) parts on the wings and start to darken them from the top down.

Just simple strokes – open the thumbnail and see how simple and often rough the pencil strokes are.

It is important that you fill out the darkest parts on the wings first.

Now you have a beautiful pattern that looks like a lace work and you can gradually add more grey tone into the white holes.

Click on the images to see the actual size and see how the grey is added by deceptively simple pencil strokes. You can easily notice that I did not use any cotton swabs or tissue paper to soften the strokes.

You can also draw the butterfly directly “a prima vista” from your computer screen, which would be an excellent exercise.

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How To Draw a Dragon Painting

The complete picture of this dragon drawing may look quite complex but do not get repelled by that. I am going to show you how easy it is to draw a dragon.

As you know there are many kinds of dragons and they differ according to the culture.

Imagine the dragon as a huge serpent with legs or wings and fire all-around…or to say it more simplistically, as a huge decorated snake.

The following picture I made is a Chinese Dragon.

It is a very simple drawing, although it may not look like that at the first sight…but…if you follow the steps, starting from one simple winding line you will eventually end up with a perfect dragon drawing.

Your drawing may be slightly different from this one, which is perfectly OK.

You are here to draw your own dragon, not to copy like a scanner. The hair on the dragon, its face, etc will be slightly different on your picture and, that is good. 

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Drawing a Chinese Dragon is not just some dragon drawing. It is actually a connection with the Chinese culture. Make it nice, make it fun and make it better than mine ;-)

OK, go ahead, click on the thumbnails to enlarge each one, if necessary print them out as you wish. You can draw it directly or use a tracing paper.

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Observe well the above ready picture first. See how the body of the dragon is winding. See the shape of the curves and imagine a central line (a kind of axis) going through the entire length along of the body. Now draw that line.

I draw that central line by several pencil strokes. Make as many strokes as necessary, you can always erase them later. The more you practice the fewer strokes you need.

At this stage you should have a “S” shaped winding curve. Now add a bit of volume to that S-shaped-line. Notice how the body of the dragon is winding, tilting or bending.

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As the position of the dragon on this picture suggests it is much convenient to start to draw and work out the body parts from the tail. Dragon has a lot of thick hair on its head and it continues till the tail.

This drawing is rather a symbolical drawing so the back of the dragon may appear like spiked or as if there are flames or simply furry.

The fur on the back top continues from one side of the body to another, as the dragon bends.

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Head of the dragon is easy. Click on the image and see how simply I sketched the very approximate outlines of the head. Yes, there are many strokes on this dragon drawing…as many as I initially needed.

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You only need to mark out 3 basic parts on the head. These are: the eyes, the nose, and the mouth. Make them all visible by weak pencil lines.

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Now you can go deeper into detail. Outline the shapes of each 3 parts. If possible start with eyes, then go to nose and finally draw mouth.

You are still drawing by very gentle weak pencil strokes; so do not push the tip of your pencil too strong.

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Chinese dragon has mustache, beard, thick hair and a pair of long whiskers on each side. On its head is a pair of antlers. At this stage I just forgot them to draw but I added them later (see the fourth picture from below).

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When the head is roughly ready you can start to draw the hind legs. Use an extra sheet of paper under your drawing hand not to blur your dragon drawing. The legs slightly resemble to a bird’s legs so try to make their shape like that.

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Draw the front legs. Chinese dragon has 5 talons on each leg, but here they are hidden so we cannot see them all.

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Good. Your dragon drawing starts to emerge in its full scale. Now you can start to gradually emphasize by thicker and darker lines the body of the serpent. Begin from the tail.

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Chinese dragon has scales throughout its entire body. Open the thumbnail and see in detail how I drew the scales. I made 2 lines on each scale on purpose so that it looks more sharp and crisp.

When you draw the scales always work out towards the tail, it will be easier. I would suggest doing a little sketch/study on a separate paper to see how it comes out.

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So, here is the place where I actually corrected the head of the dragon, namely I added a pair of very simple antlers. Can you see them? They are hidden in thick hair so they may be hardly visible but antlers should be there.

If you do the dragon drawing only by pencil you can start to shade the dragon’s body as it is outlined here. Simple strokes will do the job perfectly.

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Since all this drawing is by graphite HB pencil, most of the body parts appear blackish. Parts that look as if they were piled up on each other may be difficult to distinguish one shape from another.

I suggest leaving a tiny (very slim) borderline around those parts, especially on the hair of the dragon’s head. Hair and antlers would be otherwise impossible to distinguish. Enlarge the picture and notice this important step.

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Make sure you have the thin borderline, especially on the head. Too much hair and other elements are just bundling in that area.

Use a sharp pencil and pencil-shaped-eraser to draw the borderlines. Using these two simple tools will help you tremendously, you’ll see.

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OK, your dragon drawing is ready. Erase the last grey dust from around the body so that the white parts on the paper remain as white as possible.

You can do the same drawing by using color pencils or pastel.

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