There are several ways in which to draw cartoon Penguins and this article focuses on basic shapes to achieve the goal. The reason basic shapes are used is because it is much easier to draw most anything if it can be broken down into shapes.
The only thing that is really required to draw most anything is some paper (I just used regular printer paper for this exercise), a pencil and some type of black pen if you choose to apply ink to your drawing when it is complete. (I use a micron #2 for almost every cartoon I do which can be found at most arts and craft stores or online) however, a regular gel pen works just fine for what we are doing here.
Our little cartoon Penguin here is made up of two rounded bowling pins, four ovals, four circles and six different size triangles arranged to from our cute and cuddly little cartoon Penguin. We start by using pencil to sketch out our little |
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Step 1: We start by drawing one large size bowling pin shape for the body of our cartoon Penguin. |
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Step2: A second, smaller bowling pin shape is drawn on the inside of the first bowling pin shape representing the white belly of the Penguin. |
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Step 3: Two small triangles are drawn in place for the Penguins beak along with two small ovals for its nostrils. (Our little cartoon Penguin has to breath, right.) |
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Step 4: Next we draw two ovals above the beak for eyes along with either two or four circles inside the ovals. Two circles can be used but I myself prefer four because I usually add color to my drawings and eyes that are complete with color and pupils are something I like to do. |
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Step 5: Next we draw our Penguins wings and feet. It would be a little cruel not to give our Penguin something to help him get around don’t you think. We achieve this by using four triangles, two for the wings and two smaller triangles for the feet. |
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Steps 6 and 7: Our last two steps are one, go through and erase the parts of the shapes that overlap such as the wings and the feet and we are left with our basic shapes drawn cartoon Penguin in pencil. Two take your gel pen or ink pen and copy over your pencil Penguin cartoon and you are done. At this point we can color him if we choose to or just leave him as is. |
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I decided to do some small adjustments to the feet and wings of my Penguin and add some color and shading to show you what is possible from that basic shape cartoon Penguin. I achieve this by scanning my finished cartoon Penguin into Photoshop and doing all the coloring a shading there. |
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Thank you for taking the time to draw a cartoon Penguin with me and I look forward to adding a few more “How to draw” articles in the future. Until then keep an eye out for basic shapes in everything you wish to draw. The shapes are all around us and make drawing a little easier and fun. Have a great day.
