How to Draw A Cartoon Penguin. Penguins have become hugely popular recently, and it’s easy to see why! Always cute and unique, these birds of different species amaze with their awkward way of walking.

Also, check our Frog Coloring Sheet.

With this popularity comes a wave of people who want to learn how to draw a cartoon penguin. If you count yourself among these people, you have come to the right place!

This guide has six steps that break down this adorable cartoon penguin drawing to make drawing easier for you. We’ll walk you through all the steps to ensure drawing every detail is a breeze! Once you’ve completed the steps in this guide, you can move on to some fun colors and additional details.

You can use your creativity to turn this design into something new. Over time we’ll give you a few more ideas to try, and then you can pitch your ideas too! Let’s dive right in and see how to draw this cute cartoon penguin drawing.

How to Draw A Cartoon Penguin

Step 1

The penguin’s head and face will be the most difficult to draw in this drawing.

That’s why we’re devoting a few steps to those parts, as a breakdown should make things easier.

Before we start, we suggest drawing some planning shapes. You can do this with a light pencil or pressing gently with your regular pencil.

The best way to do this would be to draw a roughly circular shape for the head and then connect it with a vertical oval shape. These don’t have to be perfect. Just fit the proportions of the character.

Now we can start outlining the head itself. The top of the head is quite rounded, and if you were to draw one to draw the head, it would follow the line of a regular circle.

However, the top of the head should not be a solid line as there are two small, pointed feathers in the middle of the top of the head. Next, we draw the penguin’s cheeks.

These can be drawn as two curved lines that extend slightly outward and connect to the top of the head, as shown in the reference image.

If you drew a circle with a pencil, they would protrude beyond that circle. That’s all for now, and it’s time to add the following sections.

Step 2

Now if you look at a photo of a standard penguin, you would see that they have a rather intricate pattern on their face that extends to their body.

This can be tricky to draw without getting messy, but we’ll cover that in the next few steps. First, draw some relatively short curved lines extending inward from the base of the head.

The reference image shows you how to position them to match the design. Each of these lines then lengthens into a longer vertical curved line.

As shown in our example, they will look like a small thin ovals with no base, with little space between them.

These shapes may take some practice, so don’t worry if it takes a few tries! You can also sketch them lightly with a pencil to ensure they look right before proceeding.

Once these model lines are drawn, we can add some facial details. When you’re happy with its appearance, let’s move on to step 3, where we’ll draw those exact details!

Step 3

This cartoon penguin drawing looks a little shapeless, but it will take shape as we draw the face during this step.

Defining the face more clearly will go a long way in making that character more recognizable!

To begin this step, let’s first outline the eyes. Each will be a simple oval shape drawn in each arc you drew in the first step.

Next, we draw a smaller oval inside each larger oval, which goes to the inner edges of the eye contour. Finally, draw a smaller oval inside each of these elements.

The latter will be filled with black, but you can leave a small white circle at the top edges of the pupils.

It might seem confusing when talking about ovals, but it’s not as confusing as it seems when looking at the picture.

Add a small curved line above each one to refine the eye area. Next, we draw the beak of the penguin. The top of the beak has a rounded topline and a pointed tip below.

Draw another curved line for the smaller bottom of the beak, then add the mouth. Be sure to stick to the reference image when drawing, as it can be tricky to get it right. So we’re ready for step 4!

Step 4

Although penguins are birds, they have tiny wings. These are used as flippers rather than anything else since penguins cannot fly.

Somehow they make the penguins even cuter, which is especially true with how we’re going to draw them in this guide! Before that, let’s first draw the belly of the penguin.

This can be done with an oval shape that extends from the face pattern. If you drew a rough oval shape for the body in step one, it would be much easier to visualize.

Now we’ll draw the wings, each appearing as a small curved line at the base of the head.

Once you’ve outlined the wings, carefully draw a curved line inward and downward from the tip of each wing.

This line will then extend down to form the penguin’s body. Describing it like this may not sound very easy, but it’s easier than it sounds.

Be sure to follow the reference image provided to see how it should look! We now have the entire body of the penguin, but we’re not done yet.

Next, we’ll draw the penguin’s feet to finish it properly. Before you do that, you can erase any pencil lines you drew for the first step, as they won’t be needed from now on. Be careful when erasing these lines as you don’t want to smudge pen or pencil lines that you want to keep.

Step 5

Now it’s time to finish the final details of this drawing and add any ideas you have for the artwork. We first need to add the penguin’s paws to complete the outline.

Just like a real penguin, these will be very snug to the body. They can be drawn with a few curved lines to form three toes on each foot.

Now that we’ve drawn the feet as they appear in our sample image, we can add more details inside the body. These will make the body a little more vibrant and lifelike.

For example, a few horizontal curved lines under the head can create the illusion of a neckline. Then we added some simple curved lines to other body areas to make it look like skin folds.

You can add these details, but feel free to add more! For example, you could change the penguin’s facial expression or pose.

You could add other fun little touches, like giving the penguin a hat and scarf. You can let your imagination run wild and develop some entertaining ideas.

Then you could add more characters, background elements, or props for the character to interact with. From this point, it’s all up to you, so let your creativity run wild!

When you are satisfied with the look of the design, you can proceed to the last phase, where we will finish the design with some colors.

Step 6

In real life, penguins aren’t the most colorful of creatures. You get some that may have light ridges or similar detail, but for the most part, they have a very muted black-and-white color scheme.

That goes for this cartoon penguin theme, but we found a few ways to make it enjoyable. We used bright orange for the beak and legs for some pops of color.

Next, we used a nice blue color for the eyes. For the penguin’s darker areas, we used shades of gray to add some variety to the image.

We picked these colors, but you can use any color you like! Not only that, but using different art tools, mediums, and other materials can add entirely new elements to your chosen colors.

Mixing different artistic mediums can be fun, too, so don’t be afraid to experiment. If you find the colors too dull, there are ways to incorporate lighter colors.

For example, you could pose the penguin in candy canes or colorful clothing, as this would allow for some bright, happy colors.

You can also use crafts like glitter or stickers to add color depth. It’s entirely up to you, and you don’t have to stick to just realistic colors for the penguin, either.

Your Cartoon Penguin Drawing is Finished!