Caroline
Africa is famous for its incredible range of wildlife, but there is one that reigns supreme! Lions are often called the king of the jungle, and it’s easy to see why.
They have a sense of majesty and power to them that makes them a favorite of many wildlife enthusiasts.
In this guide on how to draw a cartoon lion, we will be celebrating a bit of a softer, more playful side to these magnificent creatures.
By the end of the 6 steps we have for you, you will see just how fun and easy it can be to replicate the wonderful design we have prepared for you.
So get ready to have a wild, fun and creative time as we get started on this step-by-step guide on how to draw a cartoon lion!
How to Draw A Cartoon Lion – Let’s Get Started!
Ways You Can Make This Drawing Easier Before You Begin
You’re just about ready to begin this awesome guide on how to draw a cartoon lion! This guide has been designed to make it as easy as possible, but there is no shame in still finding it difficult.
You can prepare yourself for the drawing in various ways, and these would make the drawing easier for you, especially if you struggle. You can use these tips in general when drawing, too!
The first tip is to have all of your drawing tools ready to go. You should try to have a good variety of pens and pencils, as different ones will be best suited to different jobs.
Lighter pencils are great for preparation, as they can be used to sketch out the picture and then erase the lines if you make any mistakes.
That brings us to our second tip, which is to do some test runs of the drawing first. There is no hurry to get the drawing right in one go, so you could use the time to create some sketches.
Take your pencil and then try to follow the steps quickly to make a rough sketch of the final drawing. You can even practice by breaking down the structure of the drawing into simple shapes.
Once you have the hang of doing these rough attempts, you can start adding the finer details and proportions. The more you practice, the easier it will be.
Lastly, you could also use additional pictures to help you along with the guide. These could either be pictures of real lions, or you could use existing cartoon lions.
The Lion King is a film that has plenty of characters that you could use to help inspire you! With these tips, we hope that drawing this character is a bit easier.
Now we can begin with the first step.
Step 1
You can tell whether a lion is a male or a female depending on whether it has a mane or not, and we will be starting with this mane for the first part of your cartoon lion drawing.
You could also adapt this drawing into a lioness by removing the main if you prefer!
The main will be drawn using lots of curved and wavy lines to make it look nice and long. There will also be some thick curls dropping down from the forehead.
Then, we will finish off this step by drawing two round ears poking out of the mane.
Step 2 – Now, draw some facial details for the lion
The mane outline is complete, and in this step of our guide on how to draw a cartoon lion we will be drawing some facial details.
Begin by drawing some curved lines to create the outline of the face. This will be thicker on the sides with a thinner, curved chin beneath.
Then we will draw the eyes. These are made up of some oval shapes with curved lines at their bases. They will then have some smaller ovals within for the pupils.
The nose will be quite thin and angular, and then beneath it we shall use some rounded lines for the smiling open mouth. Be sure to add some pointy teeth inside before you move on!
Step 3 – Next, draw the front legs
We will move on from the head and face as we draw the front legs of the lion.
These legs may not have the same level of details as the head, but it can still be a bit of a challenge getting their proportion and position looking right.
The one on the left is raised up with the paw curled over, and the other one is straight don with rounded toes at the end. Finally, draw a simple curved line for the chest, and then it’s on to step 4!
Step 4 – Now, draw the rest of the body outline
Now we will be drawing the rest of the outline of the body of this cartoon lion drawing. The body gets thinner as we move backward, and the legs at the back will be a bit thicker than the front ones.
They will also end in some rounded toes, however.
You’ll notice that this lion is missing his tail, but worry not as we will be adding that along with any final details in the next step of the guide!
Step 5 – Add the final details to your drawing
We will color this artwork in when we get to the final step of this guide on how to draw a cartoon lion, but first we have some final touches to add.
First, no lion would be complete without his tail, so we had better add one now! The tail will be drawn using some curved lines that end in a rounded tuft of fur.
Once the tail is added, we will then draw some additional details. Some of these will go onto his face, specifically around his eyes.
These really help with the expression on his face. Then we will finish with some lines on his stomach and around his toes.
When these have all been drawn, you could also create an incredible background setting for him to be in! You could also add some more cartoon animals if you’re feeling extra creative.
How will you finish it off?
Step 6 – Finish off your drawing with color
It’s time to finish off this awesome lion with some color! Even though this is a cartoon portrayal, we went with fairly realistic colors for our example image.
That means we used very light browns and beige colors for most of his fur, and then we countered with darker browns for his main and end of the tail.
For some splashes of color, we added some lovely blues for his eyes and light pink for his inner ears.
The question now is will you go with similar colors to ours or do you have something else in mind?
There are so many awesome color choices you could go for, and each would look great in its own way.
You can also have some fun with the art tools and mediums that you use, so there are some great times to be had as you finish off your artwork!
5 Tips To Make Your Cartoon Lion Drawing Even Better!
Have a roaring good time as we make your cartoon lion sketch even better!
Lions will live with families called prides, and you could show this in your drawing of a cartoon lion. This drawing shows a male lion, but there are others you could add.
First, you could add a female lioness by removing the mane of the lion. You may want to look up what a lioness looks like to help you!
Then, maybe you could add some cubs to make this drawing even cuter.
Lions are one of the many predators you can find in the African wilderness, but there are many others as well. These could be added in order to make this drawing more exciting!
For a few examples, you could add a leopard or maybe a cheetah. What are some other animals you could add?
Adding more predators would be one way of populating this drawing, but you could also add some herbivores. There would certainly be many to choose from!
These could include some gazelles, zebras or maybe a buffalo. Giraffes or elephants would work too! What are some other leaf eaters you could add to be beside this cartoon lion?
The final suggestion we have for populating this cartoon lion drawing would be by adding some humans. In real life, you would see a lion from the safety of a safari vehicle.
Once again, you could look up a picture online to help you as you draw. Or, maybe this cartoon lion could be in a zoo where people are looking at it!
Who would you like to be looking at this cartoon lion?
Finally, in the previous step we touched upon some of the backgrounds you could use for this cartoon lion sketch. These included the African wilderness as well as a zoo.
These are just two of the many settings you could use, but you should use any others you would like! Even if you stick to the wilderness, there are so many settings you could create!
Your Cartoon Lion Drawing is Complete!
It was great to work through the steps of this guide on how to draw a cartoon lion with you, and we hope you had an amazing time working on it!
This portrayal is a really fun and charming take on a lion, but we also wanted to make sure that the steps would make drawing it nice and easy for you.
Now that you have completed this lion, remember that you can add more details, background elements or even other cartoon characters for him to interact with!
You could also change up the colors or try out some new art tools and mediums, so enjoy getting creative with it!
Then, if you’re looking for a new drawing challenge to take on, look no further than our website.
Here we have tons of drawing guides featuring everything from famous cartoon characters to other animals, so keep checking the site to never miss out!
We would love to see how your cartoon lion drawing turned out, so please share him on our Facebook and Pinterest pages for us to see!
