How to Draw an Elephant Step by Step with Pencil and Paint - Easy and Realistic Drawings for Beginners and Children

Elephants are some of the favorite animals of children and adults. They are big, slow, kind and able to give a "smile". In life, you can see them in the zoo or at the circus. Meeting these amazing creatures always resonates with children of all ages.

Children often draw them, or want to learn how to draw, being under the influence of the hypnotic charms of exotic animals. And kids also love to watch cartoons in which the main character is an elephant.

The easiest elephant drawing

When the baby does not yet know how to draw, the mother can depict the funny animal herself. If the child attends the middle and preparatory group of kindergarten, he or she may well cope with the task with a little help from an adult. How to draw an elephant for children or together with children? - you need to go through several stages.

Stage 1

Take a sheet of paper and a simple pencil. The elephant will be depicted in full-face. Draw a large oval in the center and a smaller circle to the left of it. Let the figures slightly out of line with each other. Lines connect them at the top and bottom.

Next pencil lead a curved line from the middle of the head and below, from the neck (where the two ovals are connected) - draw a trunk. Under the trunk lower lip.

From the body down make four dashes. Those on the front line, a little longer. Nearby there are four parallel lines and connect them. We get column feet. At the bottom of each "column" pillows and toes. They are marked with a semicircle and three small semi-ovals. Do not forget about the tail.

Step 2

Next draw a smile elephant, an eye with upper and lower eyelid, mark the brow. From the head to draw the ears, resembling the wings of butterflies. Contribute fine details: the folds on the knees, trunk and ears.

Stage 3

For this step, coloured pencils are needed: grey, blue and light yellow. Begin to give the elephant color. At the beginning of yellow highlight the light stripes along the lines on the trunk, torso, legs and head. Then shaded blue and complete the color filling gray: they can highlight the darker parts of the body and head. If desired, you can paint the background behind the figure of the animal.

Realistic elephant

As soon as children master step-by-step drawing, they realize that it's easy and simple to draw an elephant. But older kids want to learn how to depict a real elephant, as in nature. And in this case, a step-by-step exercise comes to the rescue.

Step 1

To begin with a sketch of the future animal. In the center draw one large lying oval. This is the torso. On the left side attach another oval: it should go beyond the edge of the first, but a little bit. This is the head.

In a realistic drawing, the main thing - is the observance of proportions. Elephant body size corresponds to the two heads.

The upper and lower line connects the two figures and you get the neck.

Step 2

To have an animal trunk, from the beginning of the head lead the line down and slightly round it. At the base of the trunk draw the lower lip. On both sides of the head sketch large ears.

If this is an African elephant, then each will be almost the size of the head. The Indian representative of this species has smaller ears. If you look at the elephant in profile, it will look like a huge gray butterfly sat on top of his trunk.

Step 3

Draw the legs: to do this, two "l "s are drawn at the bottom of the large oval, but without the closure at the top. A semicircle (convex side down) is attached to each left side of such a "letter". The legs are finished drawing, not forgetting the toe pads. Picture a thin tail with a tassel.

Step 4

Create elephant "face". Sketch eyes, eyelids, mouth, tusks (if desired).

Step 5

Sketch of the animal is ready. Now it's just a matter of breathing life into it with the help of small details.

The legs should not look like flat logs. They are slightly convex at the knees. The limbs are shaped like an hourglass, with no constriction in the middle. They add creases, curves. Not forgetting the cone-shaped ponytail.

They give the eyes a wise squint, add heavy eyelids, trace the folds of the mouth and neck, finish off the auricles. Attention is paid to the natural curves of the animal.

One can find a picture of real elephants and draw step by step, adding the right strokes time after time.

Urban elephant on the pavement

With the arrival of spring, children spend a lot of time outside. The asphalt in the city is getting dry, and there are cute children's drawings on it. And elephants are among them.

How do you draw an elephant on asphalt? - the same way as on a piece of paper, step by step. Only instead of pencils will be used colored crayons. The elephant drawn in chalk will look better if the chalk is bright, the lines are clear.

You can use unusual shades. For example, pink. Asphalt elephants can not be painted over, leaving only the outlines. The color of the pavement has a gray shade - the right one. And you can give saturation by painting over the elephant. It is important that the fine details on the painted background are not lost.

The flight of children's imagination is limitless. Adults can only smile and recall their childhood, looking at the miracle drawings on the pavement.

Drawing an elephant with paints

First do a pencil sketch, using the step-by-step instructions. How to draw an elephant step by step - you can see in the first section of the article.

To draw an elephant with paints you will need:

• A sheet of paper or a sketchbook;
• watercolour or gouache;
• brushes of different shapes;
• A jar of water;
• cloth.

Depending on what kind of animal will be: realistic or fictional, choose colors. If there will be a picture of a natural elephant, then will do: gray, brown, blue, white, black, yellow, pink. Usually they take a picture of the animal as the basis and try to copy it.

They begin to add color gradually, layer by layer. At first the light spots are highlighted. Then the main shade, the largest in area, is applied. Next, dark places are marked, and attention is paid to folds and shadows. When the image is outlined, it is possible to add realism. Eyes are made "alive" with the help of highlights. Light and dark shades of paint decorate the ears.

To give the elephant a real skin color, you can safely mix different colors. For example, add a layer of pink, brown touches, etc.

It is always necessary to visually assess the process of work. If something didn't work out, you can correct it by applying a different color over the dried fragment of the drawing. To understand how to draw an elephant in paint, you can watch the work of real artists: watch an educational video.

Some kids are so captivated by the process of drawing that they want to enroll in art school. You can also learn to draw yourself if you have the time, patience, and a great desire to create a new world with your own hands!

Photo examples of elephant drawn with a pencil