After you’ve drawn your relaxed cow, it’s time to give it a fitting background for it to bask in. This can be as simple or as detailed as you want it to be. In my case, I’ve sketched a few rolling hills with a soft grassy texture and added a lake on one side. I highly recommend using hills when you want to draw a quick and easy background.
Learn How to Draw a Cow Lying Down in a Field
No depiction of a bucolic landscape is complete without a content cow, grazing away on some grass. With their dark, gentle eyes and tranquil demeanor, it’s easy to understand why too. A happy cow dressed with a bell collar goes hand in hand with the picturesque scenery of the countryside.
If you’ve never sketched a bovine, however, it may seem difficult to render its anatomy correctly. Not to worry. As with any new subject, you’ll find that with some patience and clear step-by-step instructions, you too can master this animal. This tutorial will teach you how to draw a cow lying down in a field. All you’ll need to get started is a few reference photos of a cow, some drawing supplies, and paper. Ready to get started? Then, let’s draw a cow!
Learn how to draw a cow with these step by step instructions.
Art & Photo: Margherita Cole | My Modern Met
Begin by drawing a loose wavy line on the paper. This will be the slope of the cow’s back.
Step 2: Lightly sketch a circle
Art & Photo: Margherita Cole | My Modern Met
Next, we will start building the cow’s head and body with shapes. So, take your pencil underneath the end of the wavy line and lightly sketch a circle.
Cow Sketch Warm Up Exercise
Doing some quick warm up sketching is a great exercise to do prior to your drawing sessions. It’s a good way to loosen up your drawing muscles. And an even better way to get a rough idea of how to draw your subject matter.
Just set a timer for a specific length of time. Three or five minutes is plenty of time. And then do as many quick sketches as you can in that amount of time.
Or, you can just sketch until your paper is filled. That’s how I usually do my quick sketches. You still want to be finished in well under ten minutes though.
Be sure to keep your cow sketches quick and loose. And you don’t have to worry about any specific details yet.
How to Draw a Cow Head Step by Step
Learning how to draw a cow is really easy if you break things down into easy to follow steps, starting with simple shapes. There are other benefits to doing this as well.
It will help you get over the blank page barrier that many artists face. And it will allow you to get a rough idea of what your finished drawing will look like before spending too much time on your cow drawing.
Step 1: Basic Shapes
So for the cow head we’ll need a circle for the top of the head. And a square or rectangle for the nose and mouth. You can also add a couple of ears to the circle.
Beginning with basic shapes will make your drawings much easier to do.
Step 2: Add Details
Next, draw out the shape of the nose and nostrils. Use a reference photo if you need to. It will make things easier.
Then draw the tongue and the area around the nose.
Now draw the lower lip. And then the chin.
Next we’re going to work on drawing the eyes and the top of the cow’s head. Start by drawing a couple of circles for the eyes.
Then add some eyelids and brow lines.
After that you can finish drawing the shape of the cow head. And add in some lines where the fur will be different colors.
Finish up your cow drawing by adding in some hair on the top of it’s head and defining the shape of the ears. You can add a body as well, just so you don’t have a floating cow head drawing.
Cow Outline Drawing
What you do next will depend on your style and how you want to finish your cow drawing. I like using markers to add some color to my artwork. So for me the next step is to add an outline using a black pen.
This could also be done using a different color or a thick black marker. Or not at all if that’s your preference.
When making your cow outline, you can use thin lines, thick lines, or a combination of the two.
You could also add in some shading with the black pen as well.
This is a good time to experiment and try new things. Using artist trading cards for your artwork is a great way to give yourself some freedom to experiment and try new things.
Learn all about them in our Beginner’s Guide to ATCs.
When you’re finished making your cow outline use an eraser to clean up your drawing and remove any pencil lines.
