How To Draw How To Draw A Lion

This stride by footstep tutorial shows how to draw a king of beasts's face and head going from a basic shape sketch to a finished line drawing.

Lion face drawing step by step — King of beasts face cartoon stride by step

As a lion's face up is fairly circuitous this is a very detailed tutorial with many steps. If you are going to be following along using pencil and newspaper please exist sure to make light lines for the initial steps of the drawing so that you lot tin easily erase them afterward.

Step 1 – Draw the Major Shapes of the Panthera leo's Face up & Head

Lion face proportions drawing — Panthera leo face proportions cartoon

Start the cartoon of the lion's face past first breaking it down into more basic shapes.

For an explanation of why y'all should draw this way see:

Beginner Guide to Learning to Draw

Lion basic head shape step by step drawing — Lion bones head shape step by step drawing

Construct the lion'southward head as in the example above:

Draw a straight vertical line through the middle of your drawing area followed by an intersecting horizontal line towards the upper end of the offset line
Make a circle around the intersection to go the crude width and shape o the upper function of the head
Draw ii circles to indicate the basic shape and size of the ears
Towards the lesser stop of the large face circumvolve describe 2 more circles (slightly overlapping the big one) to represent the finish of the snout
Depict a half circle beneath the two "snout" circles (slightly narrower in with) for the bottom jaw
Project a gear up of lines from the large face circumvolve towards the bottom jaw half circumvolve to human action as structure lines
Draw two curves staring from slightly beneath the horizontal line towards the "snout finish" curves to create construction lines for the snout
Draw the outer shape of the mane as two sets of curves

Step 2 – Draw the Facial Features

Lion facial features drawing — Panthera leo facial features cartoon

Draw the basic shapes of the major facial features and erase some of the construction lines from the previous step so that your cartoon does non get cluttered.

Add cheek bone shapes on the sides going from the area around the outer corners of the eyes and eventually curving inwards towards the olfactory organ.

Next add more details of the snout surface area starting from some small curves around the nose to the larger curves that kickoff become inward and and then outwards around the eyes.

Lion eye shape drawing — Panthera leo centre shape drawing

Draw he eyes directly above the horizontal line (with the inner corner going below the line) from pace ane with the shape as in the higher up example.

Draw the shape of the nose every bit the case above.

Pace 3 – Refine Shape of the Face

Now refine the outer construction lines of the face from footstep ane to a more than precise shape of the lion's head.

Lion face shape drawing — Panthera leo face shape drawing

Stride 4 – Describe the Smaller Details of the Face

Lion face detail drawing — Lion face item drawing

Now work on the smaller details of the lion'due south face.

Add the inner curves of the ears pretty much following the outer curves.

Describe the bottom office of the mouth with the outer corners sort of "hanging downwards".

Add together the pupil, reflection area and indicate the upper shaded area within the eye. Too draw the curves of the upper and lower eyelids as in the above case.

Add a tiny "divide" towards the lesser of the nose as in the above example.

Pace 5 – Add Some Basic Fill/Shading

Fill in/shade the areas of the eyes olfactory organ and rima oris as in the above example. You tin also showtime going over some of your calorie-free sketch lines with a more solid stroke to finalize the drawing.

Stride half-dozen – Draw the Inner Mane & Chin Fur

Lion inner mane and chin fur drawing — Lion inner mane and chin fur cartoon

Depict the inner part of the mane fur equally well the fur on the chin.

Y'all tin can pretty much betoken each little fur clump with just i or two lines. Try and make each clump of slightly different shape, size and length to make the fur look natural.

Stride seven – Draw the Mane

Lion mane drawing — Panthera leo mane cartoon

Depict the rest of the lion's mane. More often than not the fur clumps will be smaller around the top area and larger effectually the bottom where the fur is longer.

Stride 8 – Draw the Whiskers

Finally add some whiskers to finish the cartoon.

Lions by and large take a set of tiny black dots around the upper area of their mouth that the whiskers grow out of. Draw a few rows of these before drawing the whiskers.

Draw the whiskers thicker towards the base and thinner towards their outer tips. Too be certain to describe them of various length and curving in slightly different directions to brand your drawing look more than natural.

When the whiskers are washed you should take a finished line drawing of the panthera leo's head.

Conclusion

A lion's face up and head can exist very complex to draw simply you tin make information technology easier by offset breaking it down into more bones shapes and then refining your drawing step by pace down to the smaller details.

For drawing the full torso of a lion from the side view see:

How to Draw a Lion Total Torso Step past Step

For other similar tutorials encounter: