What You Will Learn In This Guide
This cat drawing guide is suitable for people of different levels and abilities. Use this table of contents to quickly get to the different sections of this guide.
Feel free to use any tools you wish for this tutorial. I recommend a hard pencil for the sketching phase, and a soft pencil or an ink liner for the final lines.
The red lines are the ones that youre supposed to draw, and the green ones are guide lines that you only need to imaginethey will help you get the proportions right.
Finishing Up And Planning Your Next Project
Once you are happy with all your blending, your cat is complete. Great job!
This is a process you can practice several times so that you can draw your cat from memory any time you like. If you would love to learn more about how to draw and shade using professional methods, see my course: Complete Drawing and Shading Course. Next, join me in learning how to draw a unicorn.
Remove Your Guidelines And Add A Few Shades
Our cat drawing is almost finished so its a good time to carefully remove the guidlines and add a few shaded. You can choose how you add shades, but the most easy way to do it is to imagine a light source shining from a certain direction on our cat. Assuming the light source is above, we get the result below.
Recommended Reading: Cat Equivalent Age
How To Draw Anime Cats
wikiHow is a wiki, similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 25 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has been viewed 98,281 times.
Kittens are adorable all by themselves, but drawing them anime style makes them even better. If you want to learn to draw one for yourself, follow this tutorial.
Get Familiar With The Basics Of Cat Anatomy
The best way to learn how to draw animals is to study their anatomy. Take time to study real-life cats and learn more about their positions, features, and poses.
If you dont have a cat, you can watch videos of cats in action.
You can also look at cat anatomy drawings and books to study their bone and muscle structure.
Read Also: How To Make A Shirt For A Cat
No Halloween Picture Is Complete Without A Black Cat Just Ask Your Little Ghouls
Parents might think they can draw a cat. Kids might think drawing a cat is easy. And you know what? Drawing a cat;is;easy. That said, if youre unsure as to where to start, we can break it down into simple steps. Thats why weve enlisted;Fatherlys resident professional artist Connor Robison. Learning to draw, or teaching your kids to learn how to draw shouldnt be too overwhelming. These step-by-steps are here to demystify the whole drawing experience.
Weve got a whole collection of Halloween-themed step-by-step drawing tutorials, meaning, you can start with a pumpkin, then draw a bat, a moon, and now, the final drawing to make the spooky art projects complete. A cat in a hat. No Halloween picture is complete without a black cat.;Heres how to draw a cat in 5 simple steps. Dont be worried! When guided by a professional artist, that even the fuzziest whiskers are nothing more than three short lines.
General Anatomy: Big Cat Vs Small Cat
Cats are cats, so you can use almost exactly the same simplified skeleton as a base for your big cat. On the left you can see a leopard with its face manipulated into the proportions of a small cat. Can you see anything wrong with its body? The elements that give the illusion away are be the elements you need to change.
The answer? Big cats have bigger paws and a bigger torso.
Big cats still have a very loose, pajama-like skin, but because theyre so big the muscle outline can be often clearly visible. A fur pattern can partially conceal it, but adding a subtle outline of the muscles still makes the cat look strong and powerful.
You dont need to memorize all the muscles. Not all of them are the same visible, and we should care more about the structures they create. You can simplify the muscle structure to lines like these
and then turn these lines into outlines in the fur. Again, not all the lines are necessary. The structure of the feet is the most important, because theyre often skinny. Lack of muscle outline in the rest of the body can be justified with thick fur of the creature.
Lets take a look at the facial proportions now. Big cats have the same skull shape as domestic ones, just bigger and more elongated. The bigger the species, the smaller and higher placed the eyes. The ears are much simpler to drawyou can imagine them as half-domes.
Big cats are also colored in a specific way:
Also Check: How To Check A Cat’s Heart Rate
Refine The Facial Features
Now is the time to draw with thicker, darker and more defined lines. If youre working traditionally, swap to a thicker pencil and use more pressure. If youre working digitally, switch to a new layer while keeping previous layers on a lower opacity.;
Refine the shapes of the eyes, mouth and nose . Add pupils to the eyes. Depending on the cat you may choose to sketch the eyes more narrow or more open. Don’t forget about the whiskers they make a huge difference!
Focus On Distribution Of Weight
Since we’re drawing our cat in motion, each leg is performing a different task and carries a different load of weight. The back left and the front right leg are carrying most of the weight and help the cat with its balance. The other two opposing legs are more relaxed.;
The front left paw while it still carries a bit of weight is reaching out forwards to establish another step. The back right paw is finishing the previous step and is about to be lifted off the ground completely. Paying attention to details like this is key to creating a lifelike drawing.
Recommended Reading: How To Train Cat Not To Bite
Start With Quick Sketches
Try quickly sketching some of the poses from your references. Don’t focus on the precision of the lines but try to quickly capture the essence of the moves. These initial sketches will give you a better idea of the cat’s structure because we learn quicker by drawing rather that just observing.;
To benefit from this exercise even further, you may want to slightly exaggerate the movement of the cat similarly to in cartoons. This can help you better understand the movements of the animal and the way their bodies work.
Four Cats With Traditional Style
The cats in the following tutorial include four;vintage;styles;that we can easily do just with the use of some lines.;Three of the guides are only;cat;face;drawings, but in one of them, we will get the whole body.
Final tips for drawing cats
;Remember that these are just instructions; they are not a definitive guide on how to draw cats.;Part of the process is practice.;Also, if you find your style you can practice more fluently.
;Try to get out of your comfort zone, look for new ideas and develop yourself as an artist.;Observation is the best learning technique, so whenever you have a chance, look at cats directly.
;Once you master the fundamental, experiment with other elements.;Give emotion to your drawings; try different feelings, such as anger, happiness, and sadness.;It is a challenge when it comes to animals.
;Have special care on the base shape of the face.;It isnt similar to that of humans.
;Do not draw only one standing position; vary in the options to learn more about them.;Cats are very elastic, so you will always have poses to choose from.
;The spine of cats is also different from that of people.;This goes from the neck to the tip of the tail.;Also, it has a certain curvature.
;The tail is the way cats show their feelings.;The way you draws it will make the cat look sad or happy, distraught or angry.;It is also a;fundamental element in the balance of cats.
If you enjoyed reading this article on how to draw a cat face, you should read these as well:
Don’t Miss: How Much Do Cats Eat A Day
Draw A Circle For The Cat Head
Your cat head can begin with a circle. We will add angles and curves to refine the cat face and features later during the outline drawing stage.;
Begin the top of your circle just a bit down from the top of the center vertical guideline and end it as it crosses over and just below the top of the big oval body.
Draw a horizontal guideline to help you create the width evenly on each side of the vertical line. I made my circle two inches long and two inches wide. You can also approximate the width of your cat head.
Add Finishing Touches To Your Cat Drawing
Were almost done with our cat drawing! Now take a softer, darker pencil, or even an ink liner, and use it to cover your sketch with the final details. In this section we will not use a red color for the new lines, but we will show them in black straight away to make sure the details and the darkness are very clear.
You May Like: How Old Is 3 Months In Cat Years
How To Draw A Cat
If you are looking to learn how to draw a cat step by step, then this tutorial is for you. First Ill show you how to draw a cat skeleton to define the pose, then youll learn how to draw a cats body, how to draw a cats face with all the details, and finally, how to add the final details to your cat drawing to make it look realistic.
How To Draw A Scottish Fold Cat With A Pencil
Scottish Folds are loved by many breeders for their character and charming appearance. Thanks to distinctive feature breeds – ears bent forward and down, these cats look so cute that it is impossible to resist cuddling such a mustache. We offer a simple step-by-step lesson for beginners how to draw a British cat with a pencil step by step.
At the first stage, auxiliary lines are outlined with a hard pencil: 1 vertical and 2 horizontal. The vertical line shows the center of the muzzle, so it needs to be slightly shifted to the right relative to the center of the page, since the cat sits slightly turned.
The horizontal ones should be parallel to each other as they represent the size of the animal’s eyes. After that, you need to start drawing the contour of the muzzle and eyes.
Important! For the cat to be proportional, the distance between the eyes must match the size of the eye.
When drawing a nose, remember that its size should be less than the distance between the eyes.
Then with the lead M or TM we darken the eyes and nose. For more experienced artists who are confident in their movements, a black pen can be used for this purpose.
In order for the cat’s gaze to be “lively”, do not forget to leave unpainted, white areas, as in the picture.
With the softest lead , focusing on the arrows, draw the darkest wool. The crown and hair under the ears should be as dark as possible.
To complete the picture, paint in the rest of the fur. The cat is ready
You May Like: Calories For Cats
Draw The Outline Curves On The Face Limbs And Body
In this step, you will add the outline to your entire cat. Press lightly as you travel around the shapes. Notice where you must draw inside the shape and where to draw outside the shape.
Tip: Keep the drawing you are copying from parallel to your drawing. Place your finger on the curve you are drawing so that you dont lose your place. Always look carefully at the drawing you are copying from before you draw your curve or angle.
You can only draw something well if you have seen it properly. Its not enough to just look at it. You must ask yourself what the curve or angle is really doing, then record it by drawing it onto your page.
Our brain can only remember one thing at a time when we are first drawing, so go slowly. Dont be tempted to make it up or you might become frustrated with your results.
Ask yourself, What direction is this curve traveling in? But dont say left or right. It takes too long to work out which is left and which is right.
Instead, name something in the room like a bookcase, door, or window. I call this the Artists Language. It really works give it a try!
Tip: Dont name the part you are drawing Ask yourself things about the shape. If its an angle you are drawing, ask yourself, How much of an angle is this, compared to the vertical or horizontal sides of my page, or center guidelines?
When you draw the nose, darken inside the nostrils and the shadow at the base of the nose. Add an upside-down Y shape for the mouth.
Putting Together The Drawn Shapes
This should be done smoothly, as if increasing body parts to each other, as in the process of modeling from plasticine. If the face of the future cat is conceived in half a turn, then the far ear should be depicted rotated, and its outline in the figure should be made thinner so that its inner side is almost invisible. To make the cat more believable, you should not draw only straight lines, any part of the body has an irregular shape with bulges and smooth curves.
Read Also: Why Do Cats Nibble On You
How To Draw A Cartoon Cat
wikiHow is a wiki, similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 26 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has been viewed 108,435 times.Learn more…
There are many variations of cartoon cats. Tom and Butch from Tom and Jerry, Snowball I, II, and III from the Simpsons, and many others. As you can tell, the styles of them both are very different. This step-by-step guide will show you how to draw a cartoon cat. Let’s begin!
Cat Face Proportions Sketch
Recommended Reading: How To Make A Shirt For A Cat
Third Step How To Draw Cats The Body
In this lesson, our cartoon cat is going to standing and/or walking depending on how you position the legs. With the head in place, we can now work our way to the right, drawing in the front legs, the neck, and the body.
Heres how to draw a cats body
Using the circles as markers for the core parts of your cats body, drawing the lines in and around them to bring the cats form into view is fairly simple. Notice the paws in some cases you can see all three toes , but in others less. This has everything to do with the angle at which the paws are being viewed.
And well, at this stage youre all done the lesson! Grab an eraser and remove the underlying framework. If you kept your lines extra light, it shouldnt be a problem at all. Something you may want to do actually go ahead and color your cat first. Then after, go over your lines once more with a black marker. Itll really make your drawing stand out!
Alright youre done! Thats how to draw cats. Hope you enjoyed the lesson come on back very soon theres a How to Draw Dogs lesson soon to follow this one.
Draw The Shapes For Your Cat Nose Eyes And Mouth
Draw a small upside-down triangle for your cat nose. See how the triangle begins at the top of the large body oval. Its a short horizontal line that is drawn evenly on both sides of the central vertical guideline.
Complete your upside-down triangle cat nose shape by adding two diagonal lines that meet on the central vertical guideline.
Add one angled line on each side of the top of the nose, to travel upwards, and continue these upwards to just above the halfway mark on your circle.
The cat eyes are added just as small circles for now. Space them a little distance apart from one another by using the angles you have just created as a guide to position them.;
Also Check: Is Croton Plant Poisonous To Cats
Second Step How To Draw Cats The Head
OK. All set to get drawing your cat? Perfect! Lets get started.
Like with many of the lessons here on the site, start your cat off by sketching in the various parts of its head. Draw the left eye and nose first, and then continue forward with the snout, and the other eye slightly obscured due to the angle of which the cats head is turned
Looking alright up to this point? Remember, the head of my cat is drawn in my own unique way. With the position of the head mapped out in relation to the rest of the body, theres no reason why you cant experiment at this point and apply some different looks. For example, you might want to give your cat a furrier, wider, Himilayan-style head. Or, perhaps a skinnier, pointy-eared Rex-style cat is something youre after.
Whichever route you go, take your time and have some fun with it. Adjust the eyes the nose the mouth add some teeth whiskers! and whatever else you think will make your cat all the more neat-looking.
Next up how to draw cats bodies