Don’t wait for the animal to come to you – “find” the pose for yourself.
How to draw animals (9 simple tips)
Of all the approaches to animal sketching, gesture drawing is the most effective.
Unlike human figure drawing models, animals don’t often stay in the same pose.
Which is why it’s essential to draw animals using a quick, loose, sketching approach.
Drawing what you see, quickly.
This quick gestural approach takes practice to get the hang of, but will pay off the more frequently you do it.
If you’re just getting started with drawing, check out my guide for learning how to be creative in drawing.
Avoid details when you draw animals
A lot of lessons on sketching for beginners get caught up in drawing too many details.
Drawing isn’t about capturing what you’re looking at photo-realistically.
Instead, draw loose contour drawings.
When you’re sketching animals, it helps to focus on drawing the larger shapes of the animal.
Not just the shapes of the animal’s body, but also the shapes created by light and shadow.
Also, looking at the animals more than you’re looking at your paper.
Trusting that your hand will make lines that capture the gesture and likeness of the animal.
Remember, you’re not trying to draw every single strand of hair, each bit of fur, or scales.
Instead, you’re drawing the overall action and movement of the animal.
Using only loose lines. There’s no such thing as a mistake when you’re sketching animals.
Draw animals from different angles
As with any type of animal sketching from life, its easy to stay in one spot and draw.
Depending on the animals, they may be sleepy and stay in one spot for most of the day.
Try to avoid sketching animals from just one angle.
Instead, move around and change your perspective of the animals you’re drawing.
Sketching is an exploration to help you better understand the movement and anatomy of different animals.
Constantly challenge yourself when you’re making art.
Force yourself to move around to draw different angles of animals.
Angles and perspectives you haven’t drawn before.
Easy Animals to Draw: Farm Animals
Some of the most popular animals to draw are farm animals. In this section, we will show you some really easy tricks to draw the most popular farm animals. The cow is drawn from a single rectangle and the sheep from an oval. Stepping up, two ovals will get you drawing the pig and chick. Next, you can play with the basic shapes and learn to draw a cat from circles – and surprisingly – even from triangles! Have fun.
Easy Cow Drawing
An easy step-by-step tutorial drawing a funny, cute, chubby cartoon cow happily chewing on grass.
Unlike the other animals, our cow is drawn from a rectangle. With a massive body, tiny legs, large muzzle, and little eyes, it is definitely the cartoon exaggeration that makes the simple drawing look funny and cute.
Easy Funny Cartoon Sheep Drawing
The most recognizable mark of a sheep is its body puffed up with thick woolly fleece.
If you just add some legs and head to the big ball of fluffy wool you will get a lovely cartoon-style sheep.
Easy Pig Drawing
Learn how to draw a pig with our easy pig drawing tutorial. Turn two simple ovals into a cute cartoon pig by adding a snout, floppy ears, and a curly pigtail.
Easy Cute Chick Drawing
Here’s how to draw a chick by following easy step-by-step drawing instructions. Starting from a simple two-circle sketch, we will draw a fluffy and cute baby chick that looks very happy bravely jumping out of an eggshell into a bright wide world.
3 Easy Cat Drawings Using Simple Shapes
Learn how to draw a cat using simple shapes. Let’s draw three different cats in three different ways and in three different positions. Plus some extra fun.
Easy Mouse Drawing
Learn how to turn a simple egg-shaped oval into an easy mouse drawing by adding a mouse’s “trademark” features – ears, whiskers, and a tail.
If you like drawing farm animals and would like to draw some more, check out all the farm animal drawings we have here on Let’s Draw That.
Want more ideas for your animal drawings? We recommend checking these books:
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Easy Animals to Draw: Zoo Animals
Another set of easy animals to draw are some Zoo animals. Here we will show you how to turn our easy cat drawing in the section above into a tiger or lion. Plus there is a cute penguin chick and a simple turtle drawing that can be made with just a few ovals.
Easy Tiger Drawing
Learn how to draw a tiger. We will draw a simple sitting cartoon-style tiger with some funky and cute-looking large eyes.
Easy Lion Drawing
Learn how to draw a lion using simple triangle shapes as a guideline sketch. The result is a cute comics-style lion, which is not triangular at all.
Easy Turtle Drawing
Learn how to draw a turtle. Start with a simple top-view turtle and learn how to draw the turtle shell pattern. Next, draw a nice sea turtle from an angle.
Easy Penguin Chick Drawing
Learn how to draw a penguin. Our first penguin is just a young chick. He is fluffy and cute, with a nice round body and head. That makes him an easy start for learning how to draw a penguin.
As usual, these are just the easy Zoo animals to get you started. There are more you can draw in our How to draw Zoo animals section – check it out!
Easy Animals to Draw: Bugs and Insects
The next lot of easy animals to draw are bugs and insects. These make excellent starting points for animal drawings because they are made of simpler shapes, and their features are easily identifiable. You cannot go much simpler than our cute bumblebee drawing – just adding stripes to the basic body makes it immediately recognizable. Or add eight tiny legs to an oval, and voila, you get a spider!
Very Easy Bumblebee Drawing
Learn how to draw a bumblebee. An extremely simple way to draw a cute cartoon-style bumblebee from a few simple shapes. This is arguably one of the easiest tutorials on this site with a very simplified cartoon version of a bumblebee.
Easy Beautiful Butterfly Drawing
Learn how to draw a butterfly – an easy step-by-step butterfly drawing tutorial including drawing butterfly wings with an intricate pattern.
Cute Easy Snail Drawing
Learn how to draw a snail. A step-by-step tutorial to drawing a common garden snail with large, cute, cartoony eyes.
Easy Spider Drawing
Learn how to draw a spider in an easy cartoon style – a cute spider from a single circle and two double circle spiders – an animal and a friendly humanoid.
Spider Web Drawing
Spider web drawing tutorial, where you learn to spin a simple spider web, and then break up the perfect web with some irregularities for a more natural look.
If you like to draw more bugs and insects, check out our how to draw bugs and insects section.
