Draw a Cheetah
Cheetahs are the fastest land mammals, a well-known symbol for speed and agility. This step-by-step tutorial will help you to draw one. Let's begin!
Steps
A Cartoon Cheetah
- Draw the head. Sketch a simple circle with an oval for the mouth and two round-sided triangles for the ears. Make sure the head isn’t too oversized for your paper, since you still have to fit in the rest of the cheetah’s body in proportion to it.
- Add in guidelines for the facial features. There should be two concentric arcs swooping from the snout to the ears, as well as small circles for the eye(s)/nose and a line to depict a slight snarl.
- Draw the body. Use shapes as guides for it. Draw three ovals: a small one for the neck, a large one for the upper body, and a medium one for the back. Add in circles to connect these shapes. Remember, a cheetah's body is longer in comparison to other big cats, so incorporate that into your drawing.
- Sketch the legs. Each leg has three ovals again, a large one at the top and two smaller ones at the bottom. Draw larger versions of these for the back legs.
- Draw circles for the paws. Don't forget to add a long tail! At this point you might be running out of room on the page, so if you want your cheetah’s tail can be raised up in alarm or curled between his legs.
- Add details and outline your cheetah. Don't forget to add its trademark spots! The image here displays generous application of fairly small spots onto the cheetah, but they can be as big/little/plentiful/sparse as you like. And in fact, they don’t even need to be spots, since some cheetahs have splotchy markings and some don’t have any pattern on their coats all. After that erase anything outside your black line.
- Erase guidelines, color in your drawing. Use yellow/gold for the majority of the body, with dark brown/black for the spots. You’re done!
A Traditional Cheetah
- Draw a small circle for the cheetah’s head. Draw also a horizontal oblong for the body.
- Draw the limbs using straight lines and simple shapes – trapezoids and rectangles. Draw straight lines which connect to the body for the rear limbs.
- Draw the body using curves and refine the drawing to resemble a cheetah’s body. Draw the tail using curve lines which connect to the body.
- Draw details for the cheetah’s face –eyes, nose, and mouth. Draw also the ears and snout.
- Trace with a pen and erase unnecessary sketches. Refine the drawing and draw the spots or round rosettes.
- Color using your imagination!
Tips
- Compare photos of cheetahs and figure out what type you’d like to draw (male or female, spotted or it doesn't have spots, agitated or content) before you begin so you can visualize it more effectively.
- Study the poses and demeanor of cats, even just a household pet. You’ll be amazed how something so minor can affect your drawing!
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