How to Draw a Ringtail Cat

The ringtail cat is an agile critter that is known as an avid and fast climber. While it's named after a cat, the animal itself is of the raccoon family. These creatures look a lot like cats, but they share the ringed tail of the raccoon. Drawing a ringtail cat can best be accomplished by breaking the critter down into several basic shapes to form a framework. Once you have the frame down on the page, you can begin working in the details over the frame. After you have mastered this technique, you can try drawing the ringtail cat in different poses.

Things You'll Need

• Paper Pencil Black ink pen Kneaded eraser

Instructions

1. 

   With the pencil, draw a circle for the head and two triangle for the ears. Add the eyes with two small circles. Add the nose and mouth area with a larger circle under the eyes. Create the body with the a large oval. Add the tail with a curved line.

2. Create the legs with simple lines. Draw circles on the shoulders, elbows and knees. Add a large circle for the hip bone on the back leg and another on the end of the tail.

3. Draw parallel lines around the tail, legs and body to flesh out the form of the ringtail cat. Add a small upside down triangle for the nose inside the nose and mouth area.

4. 

   Pencil in the whiskers with three diagonal lines on each side of the nose. Add the rings to the tail with wavy lines running up the tail. Add fur to the ring tail cat's cheeks with triangular curved shapes around the face. Sketch in two small circles inside the upside down triangle for the nostrils.

5. 

   Erase the guidelines. Add tufts of fur to the belly with small curved triangular lines. Add parallel lines around the inside ears.

6. 

   Ink the entire picture. Let the ink dry and carefully erase the pencil. Darken in the eyes and the alternate rings on the ringtail cat.

Tips & Warnings

• Adding circles wherever there are joints will ensure that the anatomy of the ringtail cat makes visual sense.

• Let the ink dry before erasing the pencil or the picture will smudge.

Resources

• How to draw a realistic monkey.
• How to draw a tree frog.
• How to draw a polar bear.