How to Draw Cartoon Tiger

click the image to enlarge

Draw three ellipses in the same position as you see in this picture. Ellipse on the left is the tiger’s head. The middle ellipse is the chest and the right one is the tiger’s back or rump.

Draw two perspective guidelines over the head-ellipse on the left. The horizontal guideline helps you correctly place the eyes. The vertical guideline is necessary to determine the nose.

Use your pencil gently, do not push hard. These are only the initial guidelines (including ellipses) and you will need to erase them later.

click the image to enlarge

Outline the mouth (muzzle) part as you see in this picture. Join the chest ellipse with the ramp ellipse by slightly curved lines. Use your pencil gently.

click the image to enlarge

This part may look a little complicated or unclear so before you continue, observe this picture well. Outline the nose and add the eyes so that the face of your cartoon tiger shall gradually emerge. Add the chin – beard.

click the image to enlarge

Now, let’s draw the rest of the body. Draw all four legs and the tail. Notice how the tail creates the main accent of the body posture. Add the ears and the whiskers on both sides of the tiger’s head.

click the image to enlarge

Begin to gradually erase all initial guidelines that are no more necessary. Observe this picture and do it similarly. Some of the places you need to erase are too narrow to use a standard size eraser so you can cut off a small piece and use that or use a pencil-type-eraser. Especially, when you erase parts on the tiger’s head and face be careful not to erase the real contours.

click the image to enlarge

When you are ready and most of the unnecessary lines are erased, you can now outline the contours of the entire body. Use a softer pencil B4 or B6 if available; if not then use an ordinary HB pencil.

You can gradually erase all the rest of the pencil guidelines so that your drawing should clear now and look something like this or better :)

click the image to enlarge

Lightly sketch the stripes of your cartoon tiger. Just outline them gently as you see in this picture, don’t push the pencil too hard. In case you make a mistake you still can easily erase and correct it.

click the image to enlarge

When you outline all stripes on the tiger’s body and on the face, you can start to darken them. Push the pencil gently and be easy with it. It is OK to make rough strokes since the stripes are on the tiger’s fur.