How to Draw Caricatures of Animals

You can draw animals as caricatures.

There are many drawing styles that you can use when creating artwork. One of these is caricature drawing. Caricatures are pictures of people or creatures that bring attention to their most notable features by exaggeration. Caricatures are often used in political cartoons and comics, yet you can draw them just for fun any time using animals as your subjects. You can create animal caricatures easily using a reference picture and a few basic drawing tools.

Things You'll Need

• Reference picture
• Paper
• Pencil with eraser
• Inking pen (such as rolling ball or felt)
• Colored pencils or paints (optional)

Instructions

1. Find a reference picture of an animal you would like to draw. A reference is important because it will help you to draw the animal more accurately and will show you the basic shapes to sketch.

2. Sketch out the basic shapes you see in the reference picture. This is only a rough sketch, so just draw the simple shapes that you see. You might, for instance, sketch a circular head, an oval body, triangular ears, and rectangular feet.

3. Fill in the details and exaggerate the animal's noticeable features using the reference photo for help. This is when you will add more lines to bring life to your drawing. As you work, you can include exaggerated features on your animal to give it more character. For example, you could give a giraffe an especially long neck, a puppy a big drooling tongue, or a kitten round adorable eyes.

4. Ink in the lines using a pen. You can use any color of ink you like. A regular black rolling ball pen works well. Once you have finished inking, let the ink dry and then erase any visible pencil sketch lines you don't want.

5. Color in your caricature using colored pencils or paint. You don't have to use color, but it can add more vibrancy and interest to your image.

Tips & Warnings

• Sketch lightly with your pencil so that the lines are easy to erase as you ink in the picture.

References

• ArtsWork: Caricature
• How to Draw Now: The Simple Basics of Animal Drawing

Resources

• Captain Cartoon: Animal Caricature Clip Art