Drawing A Cow

Drawing A Cow- Mini Demonstration

In this post, I'm going to be showing you how to draw the best cow that you will ever create. 

Usually the animals that I tend to choose to draw are dogs and cats, but for this i decided to do something a bit more difficult. In the past, my drawings look more like cartoons than a realistic animal, which is what I'm trying to work on using these new techniques from the book,  Drawing For The Absolute beginner by Mark and Mary Willenbrink.

To start the drawing of the cow, I used basic shapes to map out the outline for the cow. "A rectangle for the body and a triangle for the head. Add a baseline to establish the length of the legs" (Willenbrink 76). Doing this first step will make the rest of the drawing easier to complete and you will end up with a much better looking cow. 

steps 1-2

I forgot to stop drawing and take a picture of my first step until I had finished step two, oh well.

For the second step, "Add lines for the neck and legs. Use a small circle to indicate the joint of the front knee" (Willenbrink 76). It took me a few times to get the a really good outcome, but that's okay. During this step, you really need to pay attention to where the lines are placed and at what angle they're at.

step 3

The next step is to refine the lines to give the cow a better shape. Then you need to "add the eye, ears, tail, and udders" (Willenbrink 76).  Even though this part seems easy, it can be a bit challenging because it might look a little weird until the final step.

The finished drawing!

Finally, the last step is to add the finishing details that help make your cow actually look like a cow. To do this, "Erase any extra lines. Make the coat's dark patches with semi- uniform back-and-forth pencil strokes" (Willenbrink 76). I liked this part the most because the spots on the cow don't need to be perfect so it allowed me to decorate my cow however I wanted.

I'm pretty satisfied with my end result. Although the cow seems a bit skinny and looks a little like a moose, I still think that I did a good job for my first try. With more practice, I think I could do the drawing again with an even better result. This was a fun drawing for me to make and I would recommend this to other people to draw.

Question: What do you think I could try to improve on for this drawing? What is your favorite animal to draw?

Willenbrink, Mark, and Mary Willenbrink. Drawing for the Absolute Beginner: A Clear & Easy Guide to Successful Drawing. Cincinnati, OH: North Light, 2006. Print.