Draw an Owl
Halloween draws nigh, and if there's any bird that symbolizes the Halloween spirit, it's the watchful owl, who sits at his perch high overhead as the undead, headless horsemen, witches, and hobgoblins make their nighttime rounds from house to house in search of sugary treasures. Besides its spooky ties to Halloween, the owl is traditionally known as a wise creature, and was one of the symbols of Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom. Best of all, drawing an owl is easy and fun!
Contents
Steps
Draw a Cartoon Owl
- Draw a large oval. It should be about 2/3 of the height of your paper. It doesn't have to be perfect, but try to make it about twice as tall as it is wide, like the image below:
- Make eyes. Draw two circles near the top of the oval, about 1/5 of the height from the top. Draw a smaller circle in each, and color them black, for the owl's pupils. Have fun with the eyes, if you want—you can make a serious owl, with in the middle straight ahead; an owl looking at something, by drawing the pupils pointed left or right; or a goofy, cross-eyed owl.
- Draw horns. Make a very wide "V" shape, extending beyond the edge of the oval on both sides, with the point of the "V" between the owl's eyes at about their centers, vertically. The point in the middle will give your owl lots of character. The less pointy the middle is, the "nicer" the owl will look. The deeper the point, the angrier the owl will appear. (In the image below, the red lines show the general shape—the black lines show the finished horns.)
- Draw in the wings. Draw curves from the top left and right, inward to about 1/4 the oval at the center, then back outward toward the bottom.
- Add talons. Make elongated ovals at the bottom of your owl, three on each side, and then two horizontal lines for a perch. The perch doesn't have to be perfectly straight—it can look "branchy." Likewise, the talons don't have to be ovals—they can be pointed and sharp, which is especially good if you're making a mean owl.
- Add a little feathering. Make little "U" shapes around the area between the "wings" to look like little feathers.
- Give him the bill. Place a narrow "V" slightly lower than the eyes for the owl's beak.
- Add color. If you want, color the "wings" brown, and the head and breast light tan.
- Get creative. Add other details as you see fit. You can follow the suggestions below for adding light and shadow, or make up your own. Now that you know how to make an owl, you can create an entire flock of Halloween hooters!
- Finished.
Draw an Alternative Cartoon Owl
- Draw a horizontal oblong for the owl’s head. Draw a larger vertical oblong below the oblong in step 1. The vertical oblong overlaps a fourth of the horizontal oval.
- Draw a line which crosses both of the ovals at the midpoint. Draw the two ring-shapes for the owl’s eyes.
- Draw details for the owl’s head. Draw the beak and feathers for the head.
- Draw a closed parabola that is concave upward at the lower half of the vertical oblong. Draw two small circles at the bottom.
- Draw curves which make up for the wings.
- Trace with a pen and erase unnecessary lines. Draw additional details for feathers, etc.
- Color to your liking!
Tips
- Use colored pencils for more detail.
- Add lines for more details and add different shades of the color for affect.
- Putting a branch under it makes it look better.
- Smaller owls require less detail, whereas large owls need a lot of feathers.
- Put horn-rimmed glasses on the owl to make it look wiser.
Things You'll Need
- Pencil
- Paper
- Template shapes if necessary
- Colored pencils, crayons, etc
- Pencil Sharpener
- Eraser
