How to draw an elephant with pencils step by step?

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Some people find it very difficult to capture what they see on a piece of paper and convey the shape and orientation in space of an object. To do this, there are special drawing techniques that allow you to take a different look at the object, to understand what elements it consists of. This system of perception is very useful for children. If you teach a child to understand the structure of the picture and the gradual transfer of the image to the canvas, a completely different spatial thinking will develop over time. In this article, we will figure out how to draw an elephant with pencils.

What do you need to draw?

It is necessary to create a workplace so that nothing interferes. The image of the training picture should always be in front of your eyes so that you can compare your drawing with the diagram at any time.

For all the work you will need:

• A simple pencil (preferably hard). The designation of hardness is indicated on the side surface: T or H.
• Whatman paper or any other sheet of paper (A4 format is most convenient for a child).



• Colored pencils.



• Eraser.
• Sharpener.

Give your work surface a good source of light so you don't strain your eyes. Colored pencils should be chosen soft, it will be easier to hatch when filling with color. If everything is ready to go, then you can start.

How to draw an elephant step by step?

In order not to spoil the picture, it is desirable to make thin, barely noticeable lines. If necessary, they can always be corrected with an eraser. All stages of drawing are performed with a simple pencil, with the exception of coloring and adding volume to the drawing using the shadow technique. How to draw an elephant with a pencil step by step, shown in the following illustration.

Description of the steps

1. Torso. Let's draw a large oval - the basis of the body. If your drawing is full sheet, you need to place the oval not in the center, but a little higher and to the right to leave room for the legs and trunk, the length of the trunk is approximately.
2. Head and trunk. At the same level with the body will be the head, the shape of half an egg upside down. The trunk is about the same length as the rounded head.
3. Foreground legs. In an elephant, they are massive and thick. The hind limb, located closer, is slightly bent at the knee, the thigh line starts from the right side of the body and goes down through a small arc. The forelimb is straight and is also conducted from the body, only from its front part. If adraw an imaginary line of the earth, then the legs and trunk should be on the same level.
4. Legs in the background. They are almost invisible behind the legs of the foreground. Since they are located farther from the viewer, draw their base a little higher than the imaginary line of the earth.
5. Ears. If the torso is divided into three parts, then the foreground ear will occupy about one third of the torso. It looks like a distorted rectangle. The ear of the background is hidden from the viewer, only a small part of it is visible - we depict it with an arc.
6. Tusks. Correctly positioning the tusks in relation to the head is very important, then the image will be realistic. The right line of the anterior tusk begins in the center of an imaginary inverted egg of the head and is drawn downward in an arc. The tip of the tusk is in the same vertical line with the head. Draw the far tusk, copying the tip of the front one, but moving it up and to the left.
7. Additional items. The eyes of elephants are horizontally oblong in shape in the form of an ellipse with massive upper and lower eyelids. For a realistic image, you need to add skin folds on the trunk - longitudinal lines. Draw the tail with a wide brush at the end.
8. Details of the environment. In the background, we draw the line of the earth's surface, it should be higher than the imaginary line of the legs, then it will seem that the elephant is standing in the middle of the road. Vegetation will be depicted by wavy lines, as if repeating the contours of trees and shrubs.

Drawing an elephant, like any other animal, is not difficult if you separate the body shapes with geometric contours. So it's not easiermake a mistake in the proportions of the body.

Giving volume to the pattern

How to draw an elephant so that it looks like a real one? Applying shadow technique. To begin with, we will shade the entire body of the elephant with a light gray color. Let's imagine that the light falls on the elephant from above on the left side of the picture. Then everything that is located in the illuminated area will remain light gray, and what is removed will be in shadow. Then we will add accents in the form of a rich gray color in the dark places: behind the ear, in the cervical region. In order to convey the roundness of the shape along the edge of the darkened zone, we also stroke with a darker color: the inside of the trunk, the lower abdomen and legs. Filling in the elements of the environment with color: blue sky, greenery, and earth.

In closing

All animals are drawn using this technology, for a child this is an easy way to understand the stages of drawing. The development of visual-spatial representations plays a big role in the development of the child and allows you to train artistic abilities. Gradually, you need to complicate the drawing technique, from simple pictures you should move on to more complex ones. The pinnacle of skill is drawing an animal in motion.