how to draw a baby cheetah

Learn how to draw a cute baby cheetah and then see how patches found on the body of this adorable animal can be made from various shapes. We will work on a sitting posture with the character facing the camera while showing a small and subtle smile. ;)

Yes, this will be a fun character to play with. It does have a few simple challenges, but it can be done easily with some time and perseverance! Let's take a few seconds to learn more about our little feline before proceeding with the drawing lesson itself.

Eyes and pupils are small and made from circular shapes.
Some hair can be found on top of the head.
Patches are visible on the forehead of the character.
Ears are round and a bright patch can be seen inside each of them.
The tail is made from curved lines and filled with more patches.
Back legs are large and ... filled with patches!
Front and back legs are made from small curved lines.
A large patch is located on the chest of the animal.
The mouth is brighter and made from small lines.
More hair is drawn on the cheeks.

Cool! I think we have everything we need to start creating this beautiful cartoon cheetah. Ready? Let's move on with the first step ...

step 1 - drawing basic shapes

First, let's draw a couple of simple elements to help us create a guideline that will be used to draw proportions accurately. For this baby cheetah, circles and rectangles are mostly needed.

You can start by creating the head using a large rectangle and the body using a smaller one. Legs, ears and the area around the mouth are made from circles or oval shapes. The tail is drawn using a line.

step 2 - Adding lines to create the baby cheetah

No more basic shapes. It's now time to use a wide variety of short and long lines, curved ones and straight ones to illustrate our baby cheetah. Areas like the mouth, the paws and the tail are slightly more challenging. Be careful!

step 3 - sketching a nice facial expression

You can now erase all orange shapes used to create the guideline. Inside the head, draw two large circles to form the eyes. Pupils are made from smaller circles. The nose is represented by a triangle while the mouth and the eyebrows are done using lines.

step 4 - more details all over the character!

Draw some hair on top of the head and near the cheeks using small short lines. Patches inside the ears are done using circular lines. You can also draw lines inside the back legs and sketch a large patch on the chest of the cartoon cheetah as shown in the illustration below.

step 5 - Patterns to complete the drawing part!

Lots of small circular shapes are needed on the forehead, the cheeks, the tail, the body and the back legs of the animal. You can also draw a large patch using broken lines on the tip of the tail of the cartoon character.

step 6 - Time for some colors

This adorable baby cheetah is mostly filled with a bright orange color. Patches are colored with a darker version of the same color while the area around the mouth, the patches found inside the ears, the paws as well as the patch located on the chest are brighter. A deep blue color is used for the pupils.

This is the character once all steps are completed

You now have a cute cartoon cheetah ready for some action! You can see below all steps required to draw this fun animal quickly and easily. In the second part of the tutorial found below, I will show you three simple alternatives for the patches found on the skin of the feline.

1. a different pattern filled with a brighter color

In this first alternative, patches are made from a circle surrounded by a pointed line. All patterns are filled with a bright brown color. See how the character looks different just by modifying a simple element like the patches?

2. same pattern, different approach

This is the same pattern as the previous example, but now the line surrounding all patches is filled with a dark black color. Once again, it's fun to see how a subtle modification can have a huge impact on the character.

3. traditional patches made from black circles.

The last example is quite simple! The character is now filled with several small circles that are all similar in shape, but not in sizes. Nothing too fancy, nothing too complicated!

I hope you had fun creating this simple cartoon cheetah using mostly basic shapes and simple lines. Feel free to play with patterns and textures using various shapes, colors and sizes. :)

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