Cartoon Drawing Lessons and Tutorials

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Drawing a Fun Cartoon Mouse
in Just Four Simple Steps



So Disney may have set the precedent for what a cartoon mouse that talks and walks upright is supposed to look like, but it can be a lot more fun creating one of your own. To make it an even more attractive idea, you can do it in four simple steps. Are you ready? Grab your pencil and paper, and let's go!


Step 1 - The Head and Body
The base of any cartoon drawing is always the head and body, and we'll start our mouse drawing the same way. The head will be an egg shape lying on its side with the pointier end facing right. The body is like the shape of a bean, with the top hidden behind the egg. Simple, right? Let's go ahead and move on.




Step 2 - Ears, Nose, and Haunches
The ears and nose are the most important features to a mouse because they use ears to detect danger and their noses to smell food. Our cartoon mouse will get these next. A nose is simply a rounded off triangle just left of the end of the snout. The ear on the side away from us will just be a bump, while the one facing us will be a large rainbow-shaped arc, with another smaller one inside.
Our little mouse is sitting down, so we'll draw haunches for back legs. The one facing us is just another rainbow, facing at a 45 degree angle. The foot on this will extend just beyond the body and be a thin, rounded "V" shape that meets the arc of your haunch. On the side facing away, you'll simply curve a line starting just above the stomach and bring it straight down to another foot at the same level as the first. The rest of the leg is hidden from view.


Step 3 - Arms and a Tail
The front legs on our cartoon mouse will look like arms, with a basic "V" shaped bend at the elbows. To create these in the right spot, you might first want to draw the "belly" of the mouse, which is usually a different color than the rest of the fur. This will simply curve around from the top of the visible back leg to a point where it disappears around the other side, just below the neck. Now, the arms will begin just above that curved line on either side.
When your mouse smells food, he has to see to find it, so add a tiny circle close to the visible ear for an eye. Now, he has to be able to eat it, so from the bottom tip of the nose, draw a short straight line down, then connect an upside down "V" for the mouth.
You can add two slash marks to the front foot for toes.
Now, you can get creative with the tail. Of course, the cartoon mouse is sitting up and needs balance, so the tail should be on the ground behind him. However, you can choose your shape - an S curve or, like mine, a simple "U" shape. Make sure the tail is thicker at the starting point and comes to a point at the end.


Step 4 - The Plate and a Sesame Bun
Add whiskers to your cartoon mouse with long, sweeping, shallow arcs, and give him a right hand with a quick upside down "W". Add spots to the tail - these will be the little bumps of the tail - and give the mouse a treat. In his left hand, draw a bit of cheese for good behavior. Start with a triangle, adding circles in the middle and three-dimensional sides. Now, your cartoon mouse can be colored and actually seems like a cuddly pet!

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Illustrating the Cartoon Bee,
Lazy-Eyed Larry



Drawing a cartoon bee with personality is what you'll learn in this lesson. If you've never understood how to take basic shapes and turn them into a unique drawing, this lesson can help you learn the concept quickly. Let's take a look at four easy steps to building one of my personal favorites - Lazy-Eye Larry.
Step 1 - The Base
All cartoon drawings can start with a couple of basic shapes, and these are usually used to start the head and body. Larry, our cartoon bee, begins with one small circle inside a larger circle or oval (it's not a perfect circle, but we are going to make modifications anyway, so either one will work).


Step 2 - Modifications
Okay, so when Larry the Cartoon Bee is finished, his head isn't just a circle. In fact, he's got a bit of blubber on him that makes him cheeky, so we'll take the inner circle and bubble it out to both sides with a "C" shape that will give him fatty cheeks.
From there, we can't just leave the body as is because Larry has stripes, as any cartoon bee should. So, starting from the outside of the oval or circle and working your way in, you'll follow the basic curve of the oval around and create stripes for Larry. They don't have to be perfectly even (and in fact shouldn't be), and it's okay if the lines are a bit wobbly. Remember, Lazy-Eye Larry is a cartoon bee with a bit of a vision problem, and he doesn't realize his stripes are beginning to sag and wrinkle.


Step 3 - The Face and Limbs
Okay, so now that this little bee has a head on which to place features and a body to support limbs, let's get this show on the road. Start with Larry's lazy eye. This one will be on the left hand side of your drawing (Larry's right eye). Draw a really big circle, with a smaller circle inside close to the upper left hand part of the large circle.
Now, just to the right of that eye, you are going to draw another eye that is just slightly bigger than the pupil of the first. The pupil inside this circle will be in the same position as the first but will be little more than a dot.
Eyebrows are uneven triangles placed crookedly above each eye. The mouth should be a lazy grin with laugh lines at either side. Use a slash mark to give Larry a double chin.
The limbs are going to be skinny and seem to just "hang" from the body. Back legs are an "L" shape at an angle a little more than the typical 90 degrees, and the front left leg (on the right) will have a slight bend, while the opposite will just be two short, straight lines.


Step 4 - Wings, Fingers and Feet
Lazy-Eye Larry the Cartoon Bee is almost done. To practice the wings, start with a couple of simple triangles drawn at odd angles, and play around with smoothing out the angles, rounding the lines into shallow arcs, and placing bumps here and there. Back feet are just a couple of ovals, with overlap lines erased. In the front, we'll create hands with upside down "W" shapes for fingers and connecting lines to the arms. Now, you're done. As you can see, using basic shapes to create a base for a more caricature style drawing is easy!

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Drawing Quick and Easy
Cartoon Frogs



Cartoon frogs are easy to draw. All you'll need is a pencil and this four step set of instructions. Cartoon animals don't have to be perfect and can be a lot of fun, especially for beginners, so let's start on the frog now.
Step One: The Body
The body is the base of your frog drawing. It is also the easiest part to draw. Get ready - you may have difficulty following the instruction! Here it is: draw an oval. That's it. That's the entire body of the frog and the only instructions for step one. Are you gaining confidence yet?


Step Two: The Legs
While not as simple as the body, the legs of this cartoon critter are easy-to-draw as well. We're going to reference two points on your oval to draw the legs: the right center point on the oval and the left center point on the oval. Just above these points, you are going to draw what looks like an "A" frame of a house.
Now, here's the kicker - it has to be at an angle, maybe about 30 degrees, and the side not touching the oval needs to come down even with the bottom of the oval. Those are the back legs.
For the front legs, you are going to draw two "L" shapes, starting just below the center of the sides of the oval. The one on the right will be backward, and the "long" part of the L will almost touch the outsides of the "A" you drew. Then, the bottom of the L will be long, and should point in towards the center.

Step Three: The Cartoon Frog's Front and Back Feet
To make the front feet, you need to draw another "L" shape inside each of the existing ones at the same angle, then connect the two at the bottom with three pointy toes (think of this as a "W" attached to a "V" to help you out here).
For the back legs, draw a line right through the center of the "A" from step three, starting from the frong leg and moving up about ¾ of the way. This gives cartoon frogs long legs and bendy knees. Your feet are going to look like knife blades, sticking out to the left and right at the bottom of the back leg. It might sound complicated, but if you look closely at the drawing I think you'll find that it's not hard at all.

Step Four: The Face
Okay, if you thought the body for cartoon frogs was easy, wait till you hear about the face! Are you ready? Right across the vertical center of the oval, you're going to draw two very small circles, far apart so that they are closer to the sides of the oval than each other. You can offset them a bit to make your cartoon frog's eyes look a little goofy. Below that, draw a crooked arc almost all the way across the oval, curving up in a lazy smile.
That's all there is to drawing cartoon frogs. It couldn't get any easier. Click back on the Cartoon Animals page for more of these step by step cartoon drawings, but first, color your frog before he jumps off your page!

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How to Draw a Friendly Cartoon Turtle



This cartoon turtle is just begging for you to follow the steps below and bring him to life with your own pencil and paper. If you've done some of the other tutorials you should be familiar by now with making simple shapes into cool drawings. Nothing's changed with this drawing lesson so let's get started!

Step 1 - The Head and Mouth
The head and neck of this little critter may look a little complex, but really is extremely simple. Follow the arrows in step one, starting with the mouth. Draw a very small curve for the mouth - it should almost look like a straight line. From there draw a curve to make the top of the head.
This is just an upside-down "U" shape. Continue the curve down to a point where the neck will eventually go into the cartoon turtle shell. From this point draw a curve up to the first line you drew for the mouth. This line should appear to go under the top of the mouth and will give the turtle a little more personality.

Step 2 - Add the bottom of the Shell
I don't want to baby you with the step by step drawing lesson here - just draw what you see. Think of the bottom of the shell as a tube that wraps around a ball. The ball, as you will see in step three will be the shell. At the point where the turtle's neck pokes out from under the shell add a little 'bump' to the tube. Study the image closely and you'll be fine.

Step 3 - Add the Shell
Draw a curve that starts at about the middle of the turtle's neck and ends at the back of the shape you drew in step two. There's nothing more to say here; let's keep moving.



Step 4 - Detail the Shell
Add a bunch of shapes to add some interesting parts to the shell. One thing that you should notice is that some of these shapes go through the curve that you drew in step three. The purpose of this is that it will give the illusion that the details that you are adding are actually bumps raised off of the turtle's shell.


Step 5 - Add in the Feet
The feet were made simple by design. To start draw an upside down cup shape. Look at the front left foot. Can you see the upside-down cup? That's the basic shape of the foot, and you'll all some details into that in the next step. Once you have the foot, connect it to the shell of the cartoon turtle.



Step 6 - Final Details for the Cartoon Turtle
Finally, the last thing to do! Add some lines to the feet to show the toes. Erase the lines of the shell where the details were drawn on top in step four. The eyes of the turtle are just circles. The eyebrows are simple curves - feel free to experiment with different styles of eyebrows. The last thing that you'll want to do is add a few little hairs on top of the cartoon turtle's head to give him a little more personality. You're done!

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How to Draw Cartoon Penguins
the Very Easy Way



We'll make drawing cartoon penguins as easy as a slice of frozen arctic pie. If you're just beginning to draw, then this is a great place to be. It doesn't get much easier than this so, follow along, remember to draw lightly at the beginning and then start to darken your lines as your picture progresses.
To start we'll use simple shapes and build on them as we learn to create a penguin that is both quirky and cute.


Step 1:
Draw a circle. I hope you noticed that the circle shape you see on this page isn't perfect at all. Your circle doesn't need to be perfect either. Just draw one. If you really need to, you can go and get compass from a geometry set, or you can find something to trace over.
I hope you also noticed that this circle is a little taller than it is wide. If you wanted to make cartoon penguins that were fatter you could draw a circle that was wider than it is tall. It's up to you, and I want to encourage you to experiment and try new things with your own drawings.



Step 2:
Now he needs wings and a bright white chest. That's what you need to add in this step. The wings are like 'U' shapes that have been stretched. Remember to draw lightly so that your wing lines can cross the circle that you made in step one and then later we'll erase some of these crossing lines.
The white chest area is like a heart, but the bottom and sides have been rounded off so there are no pointy parts to the heard. The bottom of the chest is like a "U" and the top of the chest is like a very rounded and flattened "M".



Step 3:
Lets fill in some face details. The eyes are very simple - they're just circles.
To draw the beak on this cartoon penguin think of it as simple shapes. The top part of the beak is like the shape of a knife blade. This is the hard part. Remember to draw lightly so that if you make a mistake you can erase it and try again.
The bottom of the beak is easier - it's just a simple curve. We're almost finished here, only one more step to go!


Step 4:
Add a "V" shape to the backside of the cartoon penguin for his tail.
We only have the feet left to finish. Look at the bottom of the step 4 image. Make the foot like the example in red and green. The top is like a crooked upside-down 'V' shape. Add a small dot in the middle of this shape below the middle. You will use this dot at a guide for creating the toes.
Now connect the sides of the 'V' to the dot in the middle with curved lines.
To finish up, erase any lines that were crossing - like the wings and maybe the cartoon penguin's beak. Once you have erased any unwanted lines, go in and darken your line drawings. It doesn't get much easier than this!

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Cute and Cuddly
Cartoon Panda Drawing



Cartoon panda drawings should be cute, so we'll use a lot of simple round shapes. Drawing Roses that look great isn't difficult, but it will take a little attention to detail. Apart from that it's as simple as putting your pencil to the page. Let's get to it.





Step 1:
Draw a circle to start the head. The circle should be slightly egg shaped. Next draw an upside down egg near the middle of the head to make the nose. This egg isn't as round as the head shape. It should be a little more like a triangle, but remember to keep it round.
Next draw a circle under the nose to make the mouth area. Draw two lines down from the middle of the nose into the mouth. Put a little curve on the end of each of these lines. Let's make the eyes of your cartoon panda drawing and step 1 will be finished. Draw two horizontal lines to make the top of the eyes, and then under those lines draw a curve to make the bottom of the eye.

Step 2:
Start off by finishing the head of the cartoon panda drawing. Add on the ears and draw two circles that go around the eyes. These eye circles should start at the top of the nose, go around the eye, and then finish at the curve of the mouth area.
Now let's draw the feet. Think of them as big "U" shapes that are slightly at an angle. Draw another shape the same as the foot, but a little smaller and inside the first larger "U" shape. This will be the foot pad. Create some lines that will make the bottom of the leg and connect the foot to the body. Remember to draw lightly so that you can erase your lines later if you want.

Step 3:
Add in 3 circles to make the toe pads on the foot of our cartoon panda drawing. Connect the two feet with a curved line that will be the bottom of the panda.
To make the arms, first draw a curved line connecting the head and the foot. Then lightly draw two ball shapes to make the hands. I wanted him to look like his hands were resting on his legs. Next, draw lines to finish off the arms and connect them to the curve that you just drew between the head and the body. In the final step we'll color the arms, legs and feet black so that's why I made the arms and legs closed shapes. The basic cartoon panda drawing is done now except for one final detail - a bamboo plant to chew on.

Step 4:
Bamboo is like a cylinder shape that has some leaves coming off of it. Draw two curved lined from the hand into the corner of the mouth to make the middle of the bamboo. Next, draw two sharp leaves coming off of this top part of the bamboo.
To make the bottom of the bamboo, draw 3 leaves coming out from the bottom of the panda's hand. We're all done drawing, let's color this panda!

Step 5:
Pandas have black ears, eyes, hands and feet. The rest of this big bear is white. I colored in the bamboo plant green here, and also added in little black eyes. That's it for this cartoon panda drawing lesson. Give yourself a pat on the back!

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Funny Cartoon Drawing of a Sheep



Let's dive right into the cartoon drawing of a sheep step-by-step guide. Don't forget to draw lightly so that you can easily erase any mistakes you make along the way!
Step 1 - Basic Shapes


Start off with a circle. If you've done some of the other tutorials you should really be getting used to starting your drawing off this way. If you're having some problems drawing a circle that looks good get a coin or a lid and trace it. For this drawing, that is exactly what I used. This first circle will be the head.
Next draw a larger circle. This larger circle will become the body. The larger circle should be positioned directly below the smaller head circle. The two circles should overlap.
Now that all the hard work is done lets add details to this cartoon drawing of a sheep.


Step 2 - The Head
Make ears by drawing two rectangle shapes on each side of the head. The eyes should be placed above the middle of the circle.
Draw diagonal lines going from the eyes toward the middle of the circle to make the nose. Draw another two diagonal lines near the bottom of the circle to show the mouth. Connect the nose lines and the mouth line.



Step 3 - Arms & Hands
This sheep has really simple arms and legs - they're just lines!
Draw one diagonal line coming out of each side of the sheep. This first line will make the upper arm. Draw another line to make the lower arm. You can position the arms any way you like - for this drawing I've put the sheep's hands on his hips.
Start the hands with a circle. Add smaller ovals to the circle to make fingers.


Step 4 - Legs and Feet
Just one last part to finish and you're done. Just like the arms the legs are just lines. If you look closely at the drawing you can see that the top of the leg joints (upper leg, and lower leg) is a little thicker than the bottom. This is done on purpose to make the leg look more interesting.
Once you have finished your legs, draw some rectangles to make the feet. I know that real sheep have hooves, but this is a cartoon - we're free to break all the rules we want to!
There you have it - you should now have a nice cute cartoon drawing of a sheep. See you next time!

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Step by Step Drawing of a
Simple and Funny Cartoon Monkey

This cartoon monkey drawing tutorial is similar in style to sheep drawing lesson , so if you've already completed that one you will see many similarities, especially in the basic construction of the shapes. Let's start creating a this funny monkey!

some examples of cartoon monkeys

The Head
Start with a circle for the head. You can use a protractor or other circular object to easily create a perfect circle. Draw another larger circle that overlaps part of the head circle.
Add two half circles to the sides of the head to make ears. Add an oval to the middle-lower part of the head to show the mouth area. Add two little eyes above the oval


Step 2 - Body & Arms
Draw two long skinny rectangles to form the arms. At the eng of the arms draw an egg shape to make the form of the hands.
When drawing a cartoon monkey keep the arms a little bit extra long. If you have a chance to go to the zoo and look at the monkeys in there you can see that their arms are generally proportionally longer than human arms. I have exaggerated the arms a little bit as you can see.




The Legs & Tail
Draw another two long rectangles to make the legs. At the end of the legs draw two rectangles for the feet. One foot is facing forward, so add three small circles to show the toes. The other foot faces the side. Draw one curved to at the end of that foot. The drawing to the right has little toenails added. Do as you wish with your own drawing, and don't feel like you need to follow this drawing exactly.
Draw a 'U' shaped curve along the bottom to show the start of the tail.
Finish off the end of the tail above the left shoulder of the monkey. If you have problems with this shape, think of it as two rectangles, with one on top of the other. Once you have your two rectangle shapes, simply draw a smooth line that goes around the outside edges of the combined shape.

Your cartoon monkey should be finished. This method of building the monkey can be modified to create many different kinds of monkeys. You could try squashing or stretching the head or body circles. Try long arms, or short arms. Try a different body shape, a new tail - whatever you can dream up!

One last thing that you can do to help your picture is give him a drawing a surface to stand on. You can do this either by adding a line under the feet of the character, or by drawing a shadow underneath him. This places your character 'somewhere' rather than having it just floating in mid air on the page. It's good to add a little shading like this to any drawing that you do, whether it's a cartoon, or a drawing of a realistic building.

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Cartoon Fish Drawing: Learn how to Draw Fish that Really make a Splash!



Cartoon Fish Drawing
Sparkle the Goldfish
Sparkle is easy to draw when you break him down into simple shapes. We'll start with, as usual, a circle. We're going to draw Sparkle as if he is facing us, but angled a little to the side. This angle will be a lot more interesting than if we drew him facing us directly.

Basic Forms:
Draw an oval. This will serve as our sphere. Think of it as being squished at the sides to give us a nice thin fish. Remember to draw lightly so that you can erase these basic lines easily later.
Extend a little rounded triangular shape off of the oval. This will be rest of the body. Because of the angle of Sparkle to the viewer, the body will seem to get smaller as it goes from the face back to the tail.
Add the fins onto your cartoon fish drawing. You can really use any shape you want for the fins, but for this I've chosen long thin fins. I chose this style because I think the slender fins help to sell the simple, good-hearted nature of the character.
Add in 2 circles for eyes and some curves above them for eye brows. The position of the eyebrows is very important to show the character's mood. Add in 2 curves for the mouth. The top of the mouth is less curved than the bottom. Add on another curve slightly below the top of the mouth to show the top teeth. Fill in the bottom of the mouth with black.
Add in 2 small curves along the side for the gills, and on curve on the bottom to show the belly. Erase your foundation lines and you should be finished!
Cartoon Fish Drawing #2

General 'Finn' Lee
The second fish is going to have a little more attitude than cute little Sparkle the goldfish. The General has a little more flair, and a little more attitude.
Start again with an egg-shaped circle. Keep your lines light so you can erase them later. The big part of the egg will make the face. Draw a small curve that cuts into the egg to show the front of the face. At the bottom of this curve draw another curve which will make the top of the mouth. Another curve at the bottom will make the bottom of the mouth. Add one last curve just below the top of the mouth to show the teeth.
Your cartoon fish drawing needs a tail, so add a rounded triangle shape to the back of the body. Add another fin to the top of the body. I've gone for a bit more stylized looking fin than in the previous fish. Lastly, use a rounded triangle shape to create the side fin.
Add one circle, and one half-circle to create the eyes. A simple diagonal line across the eye can form the eyelid. Eyelashes along the eyelid towards the back of the eye will help sell the attitude of the General. I added a dark circle around the eyes which helps make the face a little more interesting. Use two curved lines to add gills to your cartoon fish drawing.

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Step by Step Dragon Drawing
in Cool TV Cartoon Style




Dragon drawing, like the image to the left, is a lot easier than you might think. It looks complex, but the shapes are very basic, once you start to break them down.
If you can draw a curve and a straight line that's about all that you need to know. No joke!
A great inspiration came to make this tutorial after buying and watching several cartoon series on DVD. I wanted to show you how to make something that could fit into that kind of cool, modern style; basic, flat colors, simple shapes, and stylish design.
*Remember to draw lightly, especially in the beginning of your dragon drawing. I say this will almost every step by step drawing lesson, but it's important!


Step 1 - The Dragon Mouth and Nose
I'm not sure what you'd call this curve, but let me explain what it is. The round part at the top will make the nose. It curves down and goes into a straight line - the top of the mouth. From there we curve into the bottom of the mouth. Another curve and we're at the lip and chin. Notice that the chin is a little bigger than the bottom of the jaw - this helps to define the chin. From the chin there's another straight line with a curve at the end to finish off the jaw line.


Step 2 - The Big "S"
To create the body of this dragon drawing we're going to use an "S" shape. Look how the line on the back of the dragon goes from the nose, curves around the back of the head, curves around the body, and then finally ends at the tail. Can you see the "S" in the design?
Now make the front of the dragon's body. It starts at the jaw and curves the same way as the back line. Use the back line as a guide.
You can see that the stomach area of the dragon a little wider, and the neck a little more narrow. This is done on purpose to style purposes and to make the dragon drawing a little more interesting.



Step 3 - Legs and Some Details
Start by drawing a line similar to the second "S" curve that you made in step two. This will make the underbelly. If you look at the color image at the top of the tutorial, it is the yellow part on the dragon drawing.
Add two spikes to the top of the dragon's head. You may want to add spikes down the entire back of the dragon for a different effect.
Add a "U" shape with a line on top of it for the eye. Notice that the line at the top extends past the "U" curve a little. We'll use this later to make a thick eyebrow.
The legs are really simple - they're just lines that have a bend in them where the knee should be.
The dragon's right foot (image left) is facing toward you, and the other foot is facing to the side. If the foot is giving you some trouble - break the shape down into straight lines. Look closely and carefully and follow the example image in step three. You'll get it!
The other foot is facing to the side. This foot is a little different because you can only see two claws at the front of the foot. You can also see a claw at the back of the foot. Carefully follow the example and add the left foot.


Step 4 - More details
First, let's finish the eye. Make the eyebrow thicker by taking your original line and making a rectangle out of it. It should be a little thicker toward the back of the head. Add a line that slants the opposite way to the bottom of the eye. Use a circle to draw the eyeball and finish the eye.
The lines slanting on opposite directions on the eye of the dragon drawing will make him look angry.
The teeth are simple shapes. Use rectangles and curved triangles to make the teeth.
Add the lines for the arms. To add a bit more character to the arms notice how the upper arm is a little narrower than the forearm. This is done on purpose and helps to add a little more interest to the dragon drawing.



Step 5 - Last Details
Let's start with the easy parts first. Finish the underbelly of the dragon drawing with several horizontal lines. Notice how the angle of these lines changes to follow the "S" curves of the body.
Add a spiral shape to the nose. I fint that it's usually easier to start from the inside and curve out. Once you have drawn one spiral, draw another on the inside of this one to complete the shape. This funky-looking nostril will add some flair to our dragon drawing. Who couldn't use a little more flair?
Now only the hands left to finish. To draw the left hand, start with a curve that will go between the inside of the thumb and the pointer, or second, finger. From this curve you can connect the pointer and the thumb to the arm that you drew in step four. Finish off this hand by adding two more fingers inside of the curve.
The dragon's right hand is drawn similar to some of the other cartoon characters like the cartoon monkey tutorial. When drawing a hand like this, the best way to start is by drawing the curved finger on the outside of the hand. The other fingers will tuck in behind this one and use its curve as the guide for their shape, so once you have the first one drawn the others should follow its example.
After the first finger is drawn, connect it with a curve to the arm line that you drew in step four. Now draw one finger poking out from behind this curve.
Next draw the two other fingers that are behind our first finger. The pointer finger should connect with a curve to the other arm line from step four.
Draw the thumb of your dragon drawing poking out from behind the line from the arm to the pointer finger. That's it, you're finally finished!