How to Draw an Elephant Instruction
Elephants are pretty easy to draw because their size and simple shape translate into a few strokes of the pen very well. There are two poses that are good to learn when you are starting to draw elephants – the view of the elephant from the side, and the view of them straight on. We’ll just do the view from the side of this article.
Here’s how to draw an elephant from the side
- Think of a box that’s just a bit longer on the sides than it is high. Don’t draw it, just picture it.
This will help you position the elephant on your paper, so you don’t run out of space while you’re drawing.
- Very lightly draw a big perfectly round circle on one side of the imaginary box. This is your elephant’s hindquarters.
- Draw another really light, smaller, slightly overlapping circle to form the shape of your elephant’s shoulders. This circle should be on the left side of the big circle.
- Draw one last light circle that’s even smaller than the second one, just to the left of your second circle. This is your elephant’s head.
- Now you are going to draw the top line that makes the elephant’s trunk, and connect it to the top part of his head, shoulders, back, and hindquarters, going all the way down to the ground to make the line of one of his back legs. This line should be heavier than the light circles you drew, so press your pencil down just a bit more.
Start on the left side of the small circle, about at the same height as the top of the circle, and draw a “u” shape down to make your elephant’s trunk. Then continue up and connect with the edge of your small circle and follow that edge up and to the right, making your elephant’s head. Follow the circle until you get near to the second circle that makes his shoulder, then let your pencil dip a little between the two circles to create his neck, then reconnect with the edge of the second circle to make his shoulder. How to Draw an Elephant Easy Tutorial.
Continue with your pencil pressed down (not too hard – relax!) until you are getting near to the big circle. Let your pencil dip down just a bit as your pencil line leaves the second circle and moves toward the last big circle. The dip is creating your elephant’s back. Then follow the edge of that big round circle around to create the big, gentle hill that is the back of your elephant’s back. Follow the edge of the big circle down, creating the top back of his leg, and then keep going with your pencil straight down (or a little forward), past the edge of the circle, as your pencil line creates the back of his leg. Stop your pencil when you are about where the ground should be.
- You can now draw a triangle to create your elephant’s ear. It should be about the same size as the middle circle that created his front shoulders, and should pretty much cover all of his shoulders. If you can make them part of the triangle where it attaches to his head open, so the two lines of the triangle don’t quite connect, his ear will look better.
- Draw two fairly straight lines down from his front shoulders to create his front foot, and then add a very shallow “u” shape from the back of his front leg, following the bottom part of that big faint circle you first draw to create his belly.
- Add a small solid black dot for his eye. You’re basically done now, but you can also add tusks coming out of the bottom of his head. Elephants’ mouths do not show from this angle, so you can leave his mouth out. Finally, you can add the front and back feet on the far side of him from you. They should be forward (the front) and behind (the back) of the near legs if you want him to be walking, or you can just draw them being straight down and just behind the near legs if you want him to be standing.
How to Draw an Elephant Video Tutorial
