How to Draw Opus the Penguin

Opus the Penguin was created by Berkely Breathed for his comic strip, Bloom County. Like his nose over the years, his fame grew and he was the star of a spinoff, Outland. Now you can bring the whimsical penguin to life yourself.

Things You'll Need

• Paper
• Pencils with varying lead types
• Eraser

Instructions

1. 

   We'll draw Opus from a three-quarters side view, because that's how we'll see his most prominent feature--his large nose. Start by drawing his eyes. Draw an upside-down horseshoe. For this particular exercise, you'll draw him facing to his left. Add some thin fuzz on the left side of the horseshoe for his hair. From the end of the right side of the horseshoe, for Opus' nose, draw a line and then quickly hook it down and around and draw a line a little further past the end of the horseshoe and then circle it around to the fuzz. Add two eyes in the middle of the horseshoe and two slits in the end of his nose, and you've drawn his face. The sample drawings are my own.

2. 

   Now draw a bow tie under his neck. He will have an enormous amount of white space for his belly, so draw an oval and then add wings to his side. As you know, penguins have wings, but Opus is not your ordinary penguin. Although penguins have their wings taper at the end to a 'v' shape, Opus has hands that he can use. He uses them to great extent actually, from playing the tuba in the band "Deathtongue" to pointing out various weird going-ons in the world that he inhabits. This ends drawing Opus' torso.

3. 

   Now for his feet. Just draw two ovals at the bottom of his torso and voila, you've drawn Opus! You can sign your drawing, too.