Step by step drawing of an elephant for children. Drawing an elephant

Kids love to draw, so parents know that coloring books are an integral attribute of every family where a child grows up. Working with paints and pencils develops a child's motor skills, imagination, and sensitivity to the outside world. Having mastered the technique of drawing animals, parents can be sure that they will have a wonderful time with their children, pass on their skills to them and get a lot of pleasure from the process.

What does it take to draw an elephant with a pencil?

Before you begin, you will need to prepare the appropriate materials. After all, how to draw an elephant without paper and, in fact, without a stylus? To work on the drawing, you will need soft pencils for sketching and hard pencils for shading.

How to draw an elephant for an adult?

There are several ways to draw an elephant with a pencil step by step. Each of them corresponds to a certain level of the artist's abilities. For example, if an adult draws, then the following scheme may be suitable for him:

  • Take a photo of an elephant, preferably in profile, and make an outline sketch of it on paper.
  • To begin with, these can be simply circles taking into account the proportions of the animal’s body, and then they need to be “refined” until the outlines begin to resemble reality.
  • An eraser may be needed for adjustments.
  • Having received a clear outline of the body, proceed to drawing other details.
  • How to draw an elephant further is a matter of everyone’s personal technique; for example, you can start working on the trunk and proceed to the rest of the animal’s body.
  • At the final stage, you need to draw the shadows.

How to draw an elephant step by step: technique for children

It is much more difficult for kids to explain how to depict their favorite animals so that they look like real ones.

To do this, it is not at all necessary to use a pencil - you can take felt-tip pens or a ballpoint pen for this purpose. Of course, the elephant will look more like a cartoon character, but the child will be pleased that the drawing comes out quickly. So, let's look step by step at how to draw an elephant with a pencil or any other writing medium:

  1. Children should not wait long as they may become impatient, so all stages go by very quickly. The first step is to draw two circles, one of which will represent the elephant's body, and the second - its head.
  2. On the circumference of the head we draw (approximately in the center) an additional line so that it forms an ellipse with its upper half. This is necessary to simplify the subsequent stages of drawing.
  3. Next, you need to draw a line on the upper circle in the place where the subject’s forehead should be located.
  4. From the end point of the drawn forehead, draw a curved line like a wing. This will be the ear.
  5. Draw the head. To do this, add a second ear to the animal. Remember that it will be smaller than the one in the foreground.
  6. Once the ears are drawn, you can draw a trunk, which starts from the line indicating the forehead.
  7. Add the rest of the body details. How to draw an elephant so that it looks believable? Very simple. We must remember that his body should be large and round. It is necessary that only three legs of the animal are clearly visible in close-up and one is barely noticeable.
  8. At the final stage of drawing, you need to add an eye with a pupil and a small tail at the back.
  9. The resulting elephant can be painted in any color, or you can invite the child to shade it with a pencil.

Adding volume to the image

How to draw an elephant with a pencil step by step can be seen in the figure above. However, for the image to look realistic, it needs to be given volume. This effect is achieved by displaying shadows. This means that those areas of the image that are in the foreground should be lighter than those in the background. Also, darkening individual contours allows you to highlight them in space and visually adds volume.

How to draw an elephant believably? It must be remembered that the inside of the trunk must be shaded. It is very important to darken one more area - the area behind the front ear. We can stop here. If you wish, you can shade the entire elephant, but at the same time work more actively on the areas described above.

In this lesson you will learn how draw an elephant step by step with pencil. An elephant has a large body and huge, thick legs, like pedestals, but unlike other animals, drawing an elephant is quite simple. True, his large ears, trunk and fangs, although simple in appearance, are actually not easy to draw so that they look realistic. The picture of an elephant will be more picturesque if you draw other elephants nearby, as well as the surrounding landscape.

1. Draw the basic contours of the elephant's body


Start the drawing with an initial outline in the form of a large circle for the torso. At a slight distance to the right, draw a circle of smaller diameter for the head. Connect these figures, approximately as shown in my drawing, this will be the neck of an elephant. It is not necessary to observe the geometric accuracy of these contours; you see, these contours are also drawn rather carelessly. These are just preliminary outlines necessary to mark the proportions and location in the drawing of parts of the elephant’s body that will later need to be removed.
Just below the main circle you need to draw two more elongated ovals for the elephant’s legs.

2. Draw the contours of the trunk and legs


Start this step with the outline of the trunk, it is the easiest to do, you just need to draw an arc and a circle on its edge. It will be needed to accurately maintain the proportions of the massive head and trunk. Next, draw another arc from the contour of the head to the back; this will be the upper border of the ear. Well, now you need to draw the lower line of the abdomen. The elephant is a very massive animal, and this must be accurately conveyed in the drawing, so this line will insure you against mistakes. Well, at the end of this stage, add two more contours for the legs.

3. General outline of the elephant's body shape


Well, now it will be much easier to draw an elephant, we have the basic contours, all that remains is to add the contours of the legs to the drawing.
The elephant in our drawing is moving, this movement can be conveyed using the position of the legs. Draw the left leg slightly raised, to do this, lift the outline of the upper part of the leg up a little, and turn the lower part to the left. In the next step we will draw the general outline of the elephant, and then it will be visible that he is walking.

4. Drawing of an elephant in detail


Start this drawing step by drawing the outline of the elephant's trunk and huge ear. By the way, the span of his ears is equal to the length of an elephant, keep this in mind. It’s not at all difficult to draw a trunk using an existing contour marking, and an ear can be drawn in any shape. Don't make the elephant's trunk too thin or too thick. Compare, for example, with the thickness of your legs. By the way, an elephant’s legs are like columns, and its feet are flattened, almost round.
I hope it won’t be difficult for you to outline the general outline of the elephant’s body and legs.
You see how easy it was for us draw an elephant, all that remains is to add simple small details and the drawing will be completely finished.

5. How to draw elephant skin


First of all, remove the extra contour lines, because we really want to see what we get. After that, start drawing from the simplest. Draw the eye, then you can draw two tusks and a tail. It will be a little more difficult to draw the elephant's ear, but I think you can easily cope with it by looking at my drawing. The main thing is to note that the edge of the second ear is also visible in the drawing, but you don’t have to draw it.

After we managed to correctly draw the body and head of the elephant step by step, we will begin to draw the skin. In some places it can be covered with wrinkles and folds (trunk). This can be done using pencil strokes. And on the remaining areas of the skin, apply a fine “mesh” in the form of intersecting lines. Do not press hard on the pencil; the lines should be barely noticeable. Try to draw the elephant's eye correctly. To better see the details of the eye, you can enlarge my drawing.

6. How to draw an elephant. Final step


By this step you should have already completely drawn the elephant and start coloring the picture. If you decide to draw only with a simple pencil, then you need to take a soft pencil (2M) and apply shadows. Shadows will add volume and elephant drawing will be more realistic. To accurately draw shadows on the elephant’s body, you need to imagine from which side the light falls or the sun shines. What is closer will be lighter. At the junction of the legs with the body, the ears with the head, the shadows will be denser.
If you draw an elephant next to its other relatives or a small elephant calf, as well as the surrounding African landscape, then your drawing will become more lively, realistic and attractive.

An elephant has no enemies, even a cobra is not afraid of it. The topic of this lesson is how to draw a snake, or rather a cobra. It is quite easy to draw as there are few complex details.


How to draw a dinosaur if no one has ever seen it? Of course, only based on your imagination and drawings of scientists recreating different types of dinosaurs that lived on our planet. You can also use a drawing of an elephant, since the body of an elephant is somewhat reminiscent of a dinosaur.

Many novice artists think about how to draw an elephant. It is not very easy to depict this huge animal, especially if it is not possible to draw from life. Fortunately, now elephants can be seen not only while at the circus or in the zoo, but also in photographs or in documentaries dedicated to wildlife.
Before you understand how to draw an elephant step by step, you need to decide what kind of this magnificent animal you are going to depict. The fact is that elephants live not only in Africa, but also in Asia, and there are significant differences between these two species. The African elephant has significantly larger ears than its Indian counterpart. In addition, elephants living on the African continent have a characteristic curve on their backs. Only male Indian elephants have tusks, while female African elephants also have tusks. In addition, African elephants are much larger in size than Indian ones.
Before you start depicting an African elephant, you need to prepare all the necessary tools and materials:
1). Set of multi-colored pencils;
2). Eraser;
3). Paper;
4). Black gel pen;
5). Pencil.


Now you can start working on the drawing:
1. Draw a circle that will represent the animal's head. Then draw the elephant’s body to this circle as shown in the photograph;
2. Next draw the legs of an African elephant. In appearance they resemble columns. The length of the legs of this animal is approximately equal to the height of its body;
3. Draw the outlines of the head and slightly curved trunk;
4. Draw the trunk, tusks, and also a small eye;
5. Draw the elephant in more detail. Please note that this animal has extremely thick skin, which forms folds on its body where it folds. Draw the characteristic saddle-shaped curve on his back. Then outline the outlines of the landscape with light lines;
6. Draw a fairly large ear and outline the outline of the second ear, which should be slightly visible;
7. Now you understand how to draw an elephant with a pencil. But the drawing will look much more impressive and beautiful if you color it. Therefore, now you need to trace the sketch with a pen;
8. Erase the pencil lines with an eraser;
9. Start coloring the African elephant. For this purpose, use pencils in gray, brown, black and red-brown tones. The more shades you use in your work, the more realistic the resulting image will be. Start coloring from the head, making short strokes with colored pencils;
10. Using a black pencil, shade the most shaded places on the elephant’s body so that the resulting drawing is more voluminous;
11. Continue coloring the legs and front of the animal's body, using pencils of the same colors as for its head;

Today I will tell you how to draw an elephant, make the image as realistic and beautiful as possible, and make the animal proportionate. Here you will see drawn drawings and pictures of elephants along with step-by-step instructions that are understandable even for a 6-7 year old child.

1. Two circles

Since we are talking about how to draw an elephant step by step, let's start by constructing two circles of different diameters and connect them with two straight lines, as shown in the picture above.

2. Draw the general lines of the torso and head

At this stage, you need to make a rough sketch of the animal's body, legs, head, trunk and ears. You need to draw an elephant with a pencil according to the instructions for beginners, step by step, moving towards the final version of the image. Don't rush and don't try to paint a finished picture right away. Most likely, even experienced artists will not succeed.

3. Draw the contours

It's time to move on to finishing the contours of the drawing. Round out the back and stomach, draw tusks, eyes and tail.

On a note: Do not try to draw the elephant with one line, make short strokes - this will make the image more accurate.

4. Details

Darken individual areas with shading. At this stage, the elephant drawing in pencil is completely ready. You can stop here or move on to the next step.

5. Skin color

You already know how to draw an elephant with a pencil step by step, my instructions are suitable for children and adults. Now it’s time to color our picture. First, choose the basic skin tone of the animal and paint over the entire body.

6. Light and shadow

Place accents. It may not be the first time, but you can easily draw an elephant like in my example. Darken some areas, lighten others. Try to make the image more voluminous.

7. Background

You already know how to draw an elephant, so making a decent background won't be difficult. There is no need to draw it in the smallest detail; all the attention of the viewer should be focused on the animal.

If this picture seems too difficult for you, try repeating my lesson.

Good afternoon, today we present to your attention another big lesson from the topic of drawing animals. And today we are learning how to draw an elephant.

Step 1
So, very important advice for artists. When drawing an elephant, you need to take into account that a lot of detail will be required. 1. An elephant's trunk is very flexible and is used as arms. By adding wrinkles to the trunk, you will make it quite believable. 2. The ears need to be drawn with maximum precision. The cuts on the ears give the animal age and nobility. 3. Add a few wrinkles along the edges of the ears.

Step 2
Let's begin. Draw a large circle for the head and a larger circle for the body.

Step 3
Next, draw the outlines of the elephant’s trunk and ears. Try to make it beautiful.

Step 4
Now let's draw the base for the tusk, long legs, an eye and a second ear. The elephant's legs are really long and skinny, widening towards the bottom.

Step 5
Let's add finishing details. We draw wrinkles on the ears, knee lines, tusk, and fingers.

Step 6
Let's remove the auxiliary lines and color it to our liking.