Do you love animals, but find them hard to draw? These 20 easy animal drawings use only simple shapes to create a cute cartoon animal – perfect even for absolute beginners! Get some paper and a pencil, and let’s get drawing!
We have quite a long list of animal drawings collected on Let’s draw that. But when you are just starting out, drawing animals might be a bit challenging – getting the proportions and organic body shapes quite right is not easy.
Let us present our collection of easy animals to draw – carefully selected to get you going.
Here we have gathered some of the really simple animals you can draw from just a few basic shapes – often just one or two ovals. These are perfect for beginner artists or smaller kids to start on – no drawing experience is needed.
Indeed, using simple shapes means you will end up with a simplified cartoon version of an animal – but these are still very cute and very recognizable easy animal drawings.
We have gathered quite a variety of easy animals to draw, feel free to jump to the section you like, or just scroll down to see them all.
You will need: a pencil, fineliner pen, colored pencils, eraser, and drawing paper or sketchbook
Easy Animals to Draw: Farm Animals
Some of the most popular animals to draw are farm animals. In this section, we will show you some really easy tricks to draw the most popular farm animals. The cow is drawn from a single rectangle and the sheep from an oval. Stepping up, two ovals will get you drawing the pig and chick. Next, you can play with the basic shapes and learn to draw a cat from circles – and surprisingly – even from triangles! Have fun.
Easy Cow Drawing
An easy step-by-step tutorial drawing a funny, cute, chubby cartoon cow happily chewing on grass.
Unlike the other animals, our cow is drawn from a rectangle. With a massive body, tiny legs, large muzzle, and little eyes, it is definitely the cartoon exaggeration that makes the simple drawing look funny and cute.
Easy Funny Cartoon Sheep Drawing
The most recognizable mark of a sheep is its body puffed up with thick woolly fleece.
If you just add some legs and head to the big ball of fluffy wool you will get a lovely cartoon-style sheep.
Easy Pig Drawing
Learn how to draw a pig with our easy pig drawing tutorial. Turn two simple ovals into a cute cartoon pig by adding a snout, floppy ears, and a curly pigtail.
Easy Cute Chick Drawing
Here’s how to draw a chick by following easy step-by-step drawing instructions. Starting from a simple two-circle sketch, we will draw a fluffy and cute baby chick that looks very happy bravely jumping out of an eggshell into a bright wide world.
3 Easy Cat Drawings Using Simple Shapes
Learn how to draw a cat using simple shapes. Let’s draw three different cats in three different ways and in three different positions. Plus some extra fun.
Easy Mouse Drawing
Learn how to turn a simple egg-shaped oval into an easy mouse drawing by adding a mouse’s “trademark” features – ears, whiskers, and a tail.
If you like drawing farm animals and would like to draw some more, check out all the farm animal drawings we have here on Let’s Draw That.
Want more ideas for your animal drawings? We recommend checking these books:
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Easy Animals to Draw: Zoo Animals
Another set of easy animals to draw are some Zoo animals. Here we will show you how to turn our easy cat drawing in the section above into a tiger or lion. Plus there is a cute penguin chick and a simple turtle drawing that can be made with just a few ovals.
Easy Tiger Drawing
Learn how to draw a tiger. We will draw a simple sitting cartoon-style tiger with some funky and cute-looking large eyes.
Easy Lion Drawing
Learn how to draw a lion using simple triangle shapes as a guideline sketch. The result is a cute comics-style lion, which is not triangular at all.
Easy Turtle Drawing
Learn how to draw a turtle. Start with a simple top-view turtle and learn how to draw the turtle shell pattern. Next, draw a nice sea turtle from an angle.
Easy Penguin Chick Drawing
Learn how to draw a penguin. Our first penguin is just a young chick. He is fluffy and cute, with a nice round body and head. That makes him an easy start for learning how to draw a penguin.
As usual, these are just the easy Zoo animals to get you started. There are more you can draw in our How to draw Zoo animals section – check it out!
Easy Animals to Draw: Bugs and Insects
The next lot of easy animals to draw are bugs and insects. These make excellent starting points for animal drawings because they are made of simpler shapes, and their features are easily identifiable. You cannot go much simpler than our cute bumblebee drawing – just adding stripes to the basic body makes it immediately recognizable. Or add eight tiny legs to an oval, and voila, you get a spider!
Very Easy Bumblebee Drawing
Learn how to draw a bumblebee. An extremely simple way to draw a cute cartoon-style bumblebee from a few simple shapes. This is arguably one of the easiest tutorials on this site with a very simplified cartoon version of a bumblebee.
Easy Beautiful Butterfly Drawing
Learn how to draw a butterfly – an easy step-by-step butterfly drawing tutorial including drawing butterfly wings with an intricate pattern.
Cute Easy Snail Drawing
Learn how to draw a snail. A step-by-step tutorial to drawing a common garden snail with large, cute, cartoony eyes.
Easy Spider Drawing
Learn how to draw a spider in an easy cartoon style – a cute spider from a single circle and two double circle spiders – an animal and a friendly humanoid.
Spider Web Drawing
Spider web drawing tutorial, where you learn to spin a simple spider web, and then break up the perfect web with some irregularities for a more natural look.
If you like to draw more bugs and insects, check out our how to draw bugs and insects section.
Easy Animals to Draw: Sea Animals
The (so far) final lot of tutorials are easy to draw sea animals. Sea animals are so fascinating! They come in all shapes and sizes, and each one has its own unique beauty. What is even better, you can use some very simple shapes to draw many of them. Check out the fish drawings – just by adjusting the width of the same body, you get mackerel, carp, or shark. Twist the tail a bit, you get a dolphin. Puff up the head, and here is a whale. So much fun with just a few simple lines!
How to Draw a Shark – One Simple and One Cartoon Style
Learn how to draw a shark. We draw two very different sharks – one simple with very realistic proportions, the other greatly exaggerated cartoon style.
How to Draw a Fish Using Simple Shapes
Learn how to draw a fish using just simple shapes – arcs, triangles, and circles.
Let’s have some fun drawing a carp, mackerel, angelfish and puffer fish!
How to Draw a Dolphin
Learn how to draw a dolphin in a few easy steps. This a simple way to draw a semi-realistic dolphin jumping out of the water to breathe some fresh air.
An Easy Octopus Drawing
Learn how to draw an octopus. Step-by-step easy octopus drawing tutorial. Draw a semi-realistic-looking octopus from a simple oval and a few squiggly lines.
How to Draw a Whale
Learn how to draw a whale in a few easy steps. We start from a simple oval and in a few easy steps draw a nice cartoon-style whale with a cheeky smile. Then we borrow some real-life details from the humpback whale to add extra texture and a more interesting look to the plain drawing.
If you are having fun drawing see animals, there are more to draw in our How to draw sea animals section – check it out!
Well, folks, that is all for today. Hope you had fun with so many easy animals to draw. You can find more inspiration and heaps more animal drawings in our How to draw animals section. And do not forget to come back – our tutorial list is always growing.
Have fun and keep drawing!
