How to Draw A Cartoon Tiger. In real life, tigers can be a little creepy. They are considered apex predators and dominate their environment without anyone objecting.
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Tigers are also known for their beautiful fur patterns. They have orange fur with black and white stripes, one of the most distinctive patterns in the wild. Tigers are also fairly common in cartoon characters, and given their distinctive looks, it’s easy to see why.
Because of its popularity, you’ve probably wondered if you can learn to draw a cartoon tiger.
We’re here to tell you that you absolutely can! In this guide, we’ll walk you through six easy and fun steps that show you how easy it can be when you know what to do.
We will show you how to draw this cute cartoon tiger and give you tips on adding your tips and ideas to the drawing.
With that said, it’s time to start riding! Grab your favorite painting and art tools, and let’s see how to create this adorable cartoon tiger drawing in just 6 easy steps.
How to Draw A Cartoon Tiger
Step 1
The cartoon tiger we will create in this guide is quite complex in its details. It might not look like it at first glance, but a lot is going on with this design.
However, you don’t have to worry as we break it into smaller elements to make things easier. Let’s start drawing the tiger’s nose.
This has a rounded topline, and the baselines move inward to converge at a smaller point at the bottom of the nose. Once drawn, it will look a bit like a mushroom.
Around the tiger’s mouth, there will be a part that looks a bit like a beard, which we’ll draw next. The curved lines extend from the sides of the nose.
Like drawing the nose, these lines move inward and thinner at the base. At the bottom of this “beard” part, we will add some jagged lines to make it look hairier.
Finally, in this step, we also outline most of the head. The head will be drawn with some wavy curved lines, and the head will be slightly wider at the bottom than the top half.
Finally, add three more small spiky shapes at the top of the head to give it a furry look again. That’s all for now, and then we can move on to step 2!
Step 2
We could have the basic shape of the head, but now we need to add more details to the cartoon tiger drawing. First, we draw a line across the nose.
This line goes around the midpoint and is quite wavy, with a dip in the middle. That’s all we need to do on the nose now, and then we’ll add some fur on the sides of his head.
This coat can be drawn with connected small, pointed lines. These sections extend to the bottom of the “beard” section you drew in the first step of the tutorial.
Finally, in this step, we will draw the ears of this tiger. The ears will be quite large on the head, as seen in our sample image.
The top of each ear is drawn with a slightly curved line, which transitions to a smoother curved line at the bottom. The underside of the ears touches the furry parts on the side.
Now we can move on to step three, where we will add fun facial features to give a little more personality to this cute little tiger we’re creating!
Step 3
This tiger’s design seems vague so far, but we will fix that by adding more defined facial features in this third step of the guide.
First, let’s start with something simple by drawing the tiger’s mouth. The mouth is drawn with a single wavy line going up the middle.
The reference image shows you how it should look, but it should be easy to draw! Next, we’ll draw a small, pointed tooth at the end of each side of the mouth.
Finish the mouth area with a small curved line under the mouth. After drawing, let’s add the eyes.
Each eye is oval, with a small curved line at the base of each eye. Then you can draw a smaller oval in each eye and then a small circle in each eye.
Add a simple brow above each eye with a curved line across it for more personality. Finally, we need to add some details inside the ears to make them look more realistic.
Draw a wavy line near the middle of each ear, and then add some small jagged lines to these wavy lines to create some fur detail. That was a lot to do, but now let’s start drawing the tiger’s body.
Step 4
In the previous steps, we created the head and face of this cartoon tiger, and now we will start drawing the body. This isn’t as complicated as the face and head, but it can still be tricky.
Although it can be complicated, breaking it down into smaller steps will make it easier. If you want to find the right perspective more easily, you can first draw the rough shape of the body with a light-colored pencil.
The shoulders start at the base of the head on either side, as shown in our reference image. The shoulders are drawn with slightly wavy lines forming the legs’ outer edges.
Each leg has small oval shapes at the bottom of the tiger’s toes. Then a shorter wavy line runs from the toes to the inside edges of the front legs.
Next, we’ll draw hind legs reaching either side of the body. Each hind leg is drawn as a rounded shape, as shown in the example.
At the base of each hind leg, we will draw more toes, similar to the toes we drew for the front legs. This is enough for the outline of the tiger’s body and legs.
In the guide’s next step, we will add finer details to bring this tiger to life!
Step 5
The outline of this cartoon tiger is now mostly complete, and we will finish it along with all the final details in this step of the guide.
The last element of the outline to add is the tail. In our example, you can see that the tail extends from the top of the hind leg to the left side of the image.
The tail has a simple, thin, and curved shape. With this drawing, we have the entire outline ready and can focus on the finer details inside.
Since we just drew the tail, let’s start with the details by drawing the stripes on the tail. These are some simple pointed shapes within the contour of the tail.
We then draw some similar pointed shapes in the rest of the outline, except they are much larger in the other areas since we have more room to work with.
These stripes run along the shoulders, back, and front legs. In our sample image, you can see where we placed these strips. However, you can place them in other areas for your design.
Once those stripes are drawn, you’re done with the details! Before proceeding, you can add more details and ideas to the drawing.
For example, you could draw other cartoon animals to highlight this tiger. Or you can show where this tiger is by adding a background setting.
What background setting or additional characters would you like to add to this theme?
Step 6
The drawing is done, and we can finish it with some paint. This is an important part of the design, as a tiger’s colors are distinctive.
As we mentioned in a guide, the predominant colors of a tiger are orange, black, and white. We reflected this in our example as these are the main colors we used, with a touch of pink for the nose.
Although this is the color palette we used, we used variations of each color to add nuance and variety to the colors.
For example, you can see that we used a very dark orange under the head to add some shading.
The underside of the tiger has also been left white for added realism. We have chosen these colors so you can reproduce them for your design!
Of course, you can choose other shades and variations if you like, and you don’t have to keep them realistic.
If you like our shades, watercolors or colored pencils would produce similar shades.
If you want brighter colors, you can make the colors much brighter with colored pencils or some paint.
You might stick to one medium when adding colors, but don’t be afraid to try some combinations too!
You can use many colors and mediums, which can all help make your drawing even more unique. Don’t forget to color the background and any other characters and details you added!
Your Cartoon Tiger Drawing is Finished!
