Want to know how to draw a cat? I’ve always loved cats. Well, maybe not the way you do. I mean, I love them because they’re so cute and playful, but that’s about it. Still, as a cat owner myself, I know what it’s like to see my own fluffy friend as a living creature instead of just wild animal with fur. And if you’re also fond of kitties but have never gotten the chance to draw them before.. Which is probably true for most people, then this guide will help you learn how! While drawing cats can seem intimidating at first glance—after all, who hasn’t seen photos of their favorite feline in action?—it’s really not too hard once you gain some experience under your paw-sleeves. So grab some paper and let’s get started!
Start with the head.
Now that you’ve got your pencils ready, it’s time to draw the head. Start by drawing a circle for the head and two smaller circles for the eyes. Then add a curved line down from the top of each eye to where they meet at their center point.
Next, sketch out three triangles on either side of this central point. One pointing upward and toward each ear (this will form its ears). Then another pointing downward toward its nose/mouth area (this will form its muzzle). Finally, connect these three triangles together with an upside-down arc. So that it looks like an upside-down triangle with rounded edges!
Draw ears, eyes and muzzle
Once you’ve drawn the basic shape of your cat, it’s time to add some detail. The first step is to draw the ears and eyes (you’ll need two sets). For this drawing, we’re going to use lines that are much thinner than usual. Because they’re meant more for drawing than regular pencils.
Next, add whiskers—these will help define your cat’s face as well as give him a more realistic appearance. If you’re using colored pencils or markers instead of traditional colored pencils and pens/pencils then I recommend using thick lines on top of thinner ones rather than using one size up from what you usually would use for those materials; this way he’ll appear much less cartoonish looking!
Use curved lines to finish the face.
To finish off the face, you’ll use curved lines. There are two main ways to do this:
- Curve the line that goes from ear to ear and then curve it again toward the nose or mouth. You can also combine these two movements into one path that curves back down toward your drawing board. This is called “a double arc”.
- Use a zigzag line for each eye (or any other feature). So that it doesn’t look like it was drawn by hand. This can be tricky because if you make your lines too long they will look like they’re dragging behind them as if they were being pulled along by gravity. But if you make them short enough then it will look like someone just scribbled over an existing image rather than creating something new!
Outline the body.
The first step is to outline your cat’s body. This can be done with a straight line. And it’s important that you make sure the length of this line matches how long a real cat would be if they were standing up on two legs. Once you’ve drawn in enough space for both arms and legs, you should use proportion to fill out the rest of the body.
You want to make sure that as much detail as possible goes into each part of your cat’s anatomy—especially since we’re talking about drawing here! If there isn’t enough room for all three paws on one side of their body, then chances are good that you left something out entirely.
Add four legs.
Now that you have the body of your cat outlined, it’s time to add four legs.
To draw a cat’s legs:
- Use a ruler to draw straight lines from head to tail and from shoulder to paw pad.
- The length of each leg should be equal with no space between them. This will help create balance while drawing them later on in this tutorial!
- Make sure that there are no angles in between any two lines (like 45 degrees). You don’t want any weird angles on your drawings because they can look awkward when you go back and see how they turned out later on!
Finish off with the tail.
The tail should be a triangle. To make it, draw lines from the tip of your cat’s spine to each corner of its body, then connect them with curved lines that run along their length.
Then add some fur! You can use any kind of medium for this—I used acrylic paint on a piece of cardstock paper for my version above—but what I found helpful was using different shades of gray so you could see where each color started and ended as well as how full it was (this will help when creating shadows later).
To add eyes, take two small pieces of black acrylic paint and place them on top of each other (like you’re doing eye shadow). Then press down gently with your finger until they form an indentation in the center; this helps give depth to those eyes!
Cats are easy to draw if you focus on a few key features first.
Cats are easy to draw if you focus on a few key features first. They have a simple, streamlined body and face; a short tail; no neck or head, just two ears (one for each side); and an easy pose: sitting with its front legs tucked underneath it.
Here’s how to draw a cat from these three elements:
- Head – This is the most important part of any animal drawing! The shape of your cat’s head will determine how it looks in general—and more specifically what kind of personality it has! In order to begin here, first decide whether your kitty should be male or female by drawing two circles at opposite ends of one line. Connecting them together with an oval shape in between them labeled ‘breed’. Then give each circle its own color. Red for males/white for females—and make sure both ends meet at their respective positions on either side of the center line. So that nothing gets crossed out unnecessarily.
Conclusion
We hope you liked this article on how to draw a cat! If you want to learn more about drawing animals in general, check out our other articles on how to draw birds and dogs.
