Ready to learn how to draw a cat?
Lets begin!
I used this cat picture I took in the summer of 2010 while visiting Italy as a model:
I resized the image to showcase his face up close. I love the way hes staring straight into the camera!.
Next, I drew a line in the center of the image that was both horizontal and vertical to divide it into a basic grid:
On my paper, I drew a similar grid:
In order to create the grid, I first drew a 7-inch-by-7-inch rectangle on my paper. 75 inches tall. I cut those dimensions in half to create the grid’s interior lines. Therefore, the vertical middle line was 3. 5 inches in, and 3 7/8 inches in was the horizontal middle line.
I now drew the cat’s face on my paper using the grid as a guide. Using a grid method instead of just eyeballing it facilitates more accurate drawing. In order to learn how to draw a cat, you can use a grid to help you. First, you can compare the location of the cat’s features on the photo to the lines on the grid, and then you can draw the same features on your paper.
For example, take a look at the cat’s picture and note where his ears are. They are visible in the picture’s corners, just not quite touching the grid’s edge. So your job is to replicate that on your paper. Next, note how his chin is positioned in the center of the vertical line in the picture, close to the bottom edge, and sketch that on your paper. Draw lightly, so that you can erase any mistakes. (But above all, don’t be afraid to make errors because nobody ever does something perfectly the first time.) Thats what erasers are for!).
Draw the outline of the cat’s head, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth using the same techniques. As I’ve done below, you can also use outlines to represent the various color patches on the cat’s fur:
Now for the fun part: you can now color the cat anyway you like, using any patterns, colors, and designs you like! I’ll show you how I drew mine, but feel free to follow your own artistic whim and create a drawing of your own cat that is totally original.
I started by using violet to outline the cat’s head and main features:
Then I did something interesting. I covered the drawing with a blank sheet of paper and then used a ballpoint pen to draw whiskers in the following manner on the blank cover sheet:
“Now why did she do that?” you may be asking. Let me share with you a cool colored pencil technique:
The lines you drew with the ball point pen on the cover sheet will now be indented on your drawing paper when you remove it. The indented lines will remain (mostly) white when you draw over them with colored pencils!
There will be some purple in the whiskers because I drew the indentations over the purple outline. Why did I do that?.
In order to draw the whiskers correctly, I had to draw the purple outline first so that I could see it through the other piece of paper I put on top of it. Therefore, the area of the whiskers that crosses the purple outline won’t be white, but that’s okay in theory.
Next I colored in his eyes. I drew a sort of striped pattern with multiple colors, but you can color your cat’s eyes any way you like! You can draw hearts or polka dots, or you can make them a single color or a combination of colors!
Then I started working on the cats ears:
Once more, feel free to sketch any pattern you like! I completed the cat’s ears:
Then I moved on to his fur. I selected the darkest patches of fur from the cat photo and used those areas to create red, polka-dot areas in my own drawing:
Subsequently, I sketched multiple orange circles inside circles, resembling a target shape, positioned between multiple red areas:
Then I drew yellow circles around the orange circles:
The remaining blank spaces at the top of the cat’s head needed to be filled in next. I decided to use a lighter blue to fill in those areas and a darker blue to add a few short “fur” lines.
I then added some darker green fur lines and green and yellow hues to the central region of the cat’s face. In order to help the cats’ fur have more texture, I also went back and added some dark blue fur lines into the red spots.
I then completed the cat by using gentle pinks, lavenders, and blues to color the lower portion of his face.
Do you recall the whisker indentations I drew earlier? As you can see, I colored over those indentations, but they remained white:
Additionally, you can see that I highlighted the whiskers by drawing light blue lines beneath the indentations to make them stand out more. You can see what I mean by comparing the highlighted whiskers in the picture below with the blank whiskers:
And here is the finished drawing!!
You now know how to sketch a distinctive, vibrant cat!
Here’s a quick visual summary of the steps to drawing a psychedelic and cosmic-looking cat:
As I previously stated, this is only one method of drawing a cat. These instructions will help you learn how to sketch and color a cat in a wonderfully unique manner!
Here are some various drawings of cosmic cats to give you an idea of the countless ways you can color your own:
This free blank cat outline is available for download, printing, and coloring if you’d like to get started coloring cats right away without first learning how to draw one:
Click to view full-size
Simply click to view a larger, printable version. Select the larger image with a right-click, store it to your computer, and print it as often as you like. To make it simple for you to draw over the outline with colored pencils, markers, or pens, I made it light grey.
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial on drawing cats! If you used these instructions to draw a cosmic cat, please send me a message so I can see it!
See my Guide to Colored Pencils for assistance in selecting the ideal colored pencils for you. I cover important considerations like brand, consistency, and permanence.
Step 3: Legs and tail
Draw the tail at the bottom right, adjacent to the oval, with a small sweep. The tail lies on the ground in the step-by-step instructions. But you can be inventive and alter the template slightly; for instance, you could give the cat an upright tail. Then place the legs under the middle circle. The paws and the base of the legs are represented by small circles, as shown in the template, which you join to the paws using strokes.