Caroline
People around the world have come to love the gentle giant that is the panda. These peaceful animals come from China originally, and they take life at their own pace.
They’ll generally spend their days lazing around and enjoying some tasty bamboo, and that sounds like quite the life!
With how beloved these distinctive creatures are, they have been a favorite subject for many people to draw over the years.
You may have wondered how you could learn to draw one yourself, and that’s what this guide is for!
This fun step-by-step guide on how to draw a panda will have you drawing your own adorable pandas before you know it!
How to Draw A Panda – Let’s get Started!
Step 1
In this first step in our guide on how to draw a panda, we’ll start off with the head of the panda. The head is made up of a circle shape with two circular ears on top, as they appear in the image.
If you want to make this step a bit easier, then you could use a drawing tool like a compass to draw a circle in light pencil to use as a guide for the head shape.
You could then draw in the head with a pen and then erase the pencil guide.
Step 2 – Draw in your panda’s arms and body
Pandas have large limbs and bodies, so we will start to draw that in for step 2 of your panda drawing.
Pandas technically have four legs, but we will call the ones in this step arms to make things simpler.
Using a curved line coming out from the head of the panda, you can create both arms and then use a line between them to make the bottom of the panda’s body for your panda drawing.
Step 3 – Give your panda its first leg
Your panda drawing has some arms now, but it needs some legs now! In this step, we will be adding the first leg.
This leg will look much shorter than the arms you drew earlier, and it will come off from the side of the body to look like your panda is sitting on the ground.
Step 4 – Add in the other leg
For this step of our guide on how to draw a panda, you can simply repeat the last step, only in reverse.
The leg on our right will look identical to the previous one, just on the other side. Once both legs are accounted for, we can move on to the next step of your panda drawing!
Step 5 – Give your panda a face
There’s no mistaking a panda when you see one, as not only do they have a distinctive body structure, but they also have a really unique color scheme.
Their faces are also really cute and distinctive, and that is what we shall draw in for this step.
The panda’s eyes are very small, so you can use two smaller circles colored in for its eyes. It also has a small oval nose with a happy mouth that looks a little like a cat’s mouth would.
Once you have those drawn in, you can use two curved lines around each eye to create that distinctive face look that pandas have.
The final part of this step is to add a line inside each ear to create some depth.
Step 6 – Next, draw some final details
You’ve very nearly finished your panda drawing now! Before it’s completely finished though, it just needs some extra details.
As you can see in our reference image, we will add a line between both arms to show where the belly is. Then, we shall add lines to the feet to show where the toe divides are.
With some lines added to the back feet and a few more around the body, your panda is almost done!
Bonus: Use Basic Shapes And Pencils To Make This Drawing Easier
This panda drawing that we created in this guide is so adorable, you may never assume that it could be anything but a breeze to draw. However, just because something is cute, doesn’t mean it will be easy to draw.
You may have found that out during this guide on how to draw a panda, or you may have found it to be as easy as pie! Different people struggle with different subjects when it comes to drawing.
So, don’t feel bad if you fell in the group of people that found this drawing to be difficult! You can use a few art tricks to make this drawing a bit easier for you.
First of all, you should use a light drawing pencil to do some rough sketches. It’s better to use a proper drawing pencil as opposed to a regular writing pencil.
Once you have the pencil, draw some ovals and circles that overlap with one another to form the shape of the panda. You can also use shapes for the eyes, ears and other smaller details.
Immediately, you will see what the design as a whole will look like, even if it’s not particularly detailed right now. That’s okay, as you can add more and more layers using darker pencil lines.
With each layer, you can add more refined details until it starts to look more like the final image. When you break it down like this, you can see that it might start making more sense as you draw.
It can also make it more manageable, as you can erase any lines you don’t want. Be sure to take it nice and slowly, take as much time as you need and you will get the hang of it in no time!
Step 7 – Finish off your panda with some color
This panda drawing you have done is already looking great! However, this guide on how to draw a panda wouldn’t be complete without what may be the most fun of all the steps: coloring in your drawing!
Pandas aren’t exactly known for being colorful, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have some colorful fun!
If you want to keep the panda to a more realistic black and white scheme like our example image, you can compensate by adding in a colorful background.
I think that it would be great to draw in a nice bamboo forest behind this cute panda, but you could use any creative background you can think of!
You could also go a different route by using your favorite bright colors to create a more stylistic panda.
This is your chance to show how creative you can be, so grab your favorite art supplies and let your creativity flow as you finish off your incredible panda drawing!
Do this to take your panda drawing to the next level
Check out these 4 tips we have for this panda sketch that will make it even better!
This adorable drawing of a panda looks great as it is, but we think it could use some friends! A great way to do this would be by adding some more pandas to the scene.
To do this, you could use the steps you just followed to add a few more. There could be some small differences such as their pose, facial expressions or even small clothing items.
What kinds of fun poses and activities would you like to create with additional pandas?
If you want some extra variety to the friends you give to this panda, you don’t have to stick to just this species of animal! In fact, you could add any other animals that you love.
These could be creatures you would find in the same habitat as real pandas or any others that you like.
If you need some help when drawing these, try to find some images online of the real animals and then try to convert them to a cartoon style.
Another option for adding some characters would be to add some human characters. These could be based on real people such as yourself or people you know.
Once you have chosen your characters, it then comes down to deciding what kind of style you will use for the characters.
It could be something fun and simple like the panda or maybe something more detailed!
Finally, we think that a background would be the perfect way to finish off your panda sketch. You would have quite a few options to choose from if you wanted to add this.
One would be to show the panda in its natural habitat with details such as bamboo surrounding it. Or, you could draw the panda in a zoo setting with other animals.
Having the panda at a more creative setting such as a birthday party or an animal carnival would also be fun!
Your Panda Drawing is Complete!
You started off with a blank page, and now that you’ve reached the end of this guide on how to draw a panda you now have a new, cute panda friend!
Even when a drawing looks like it may be a bit more complicated at first, if you break it down to its basic shapes then it’s suddenly a lot easier!
This guide was made to help you break down the process into more manageable sections, and our hope is that you had a great time while learning to draw something new.
Drawing and coloring your panda is half the fun, though, as you can do a lot to personalize your wonderful drawing!
Some ways to do this could be using mediums such as acrylic paints and watercolors for a unique look to the colors.
If you’re feeling extra creative, then you can draw in more elements yourself! You could change the position or pose of the panda, draw in a new facial expression or add in a fun background behind it!
The possibilities are endless, and we would love to see how you interpret it.
The fun doesn’t have to end, though, as we have plenty more step-by-step drawing guides coming your way, so keep an eye on our site to never miss out!
Once you’ve drawn and colored in your cute panda, we would love to see how creative you got with it!
Please feel free to share your amazing creations on our Facebook and Pinterest pages so we can have a panda extravaganza!
Here Is A Cute Panda Sketch To Inspire You!
Pandas are gentle giants originally from China, and they have become a beloved animal worldwide. They stand out with their distinctive black and white color scheme, and we have one for you here!
Drawn by our artist Freddy, this cute panda sketch is here to give you some extra inspiration for your own drawing. He has drawn it in such a way that it looks like it could be a panda teddy bear!
Freddy also made sure to color the panda so that it has its distinctive color scheme. You will also see that he added some small bamboo chutes behind the panda for it to snack on.
Hopefully this cute drawing will make it even easier for you as you create your new panda friend! What other details could you add to this drawing to make it even better?
