Caroline
There’s something admirable about how the humble sloth lives its life. These gentle tree-dwelling mammals are never in a hurry to get anywhere and they take life at their own pace.
They are so slow and lazy that their name is literally a definition for laziness!
Their unique appearance and reputation for laziness and slow movement have made them a popular animal in recent years.
That means that people have started to wonder how they can learn how to draw a sloth themselves.
This step-by-step guide on how to draw a sloth will answer the question of how you can learn to do it so that you can draw this lovably lazy creature!
How to Draw A Sloth – Let’s Get Started!
Step 1
A sloth has a uniquely shaped head in addition to its rather unusual face design. We will be starting with the head outline in this first step of our guide on how to draw a sloth.
The reference image will show you how this should look. It is a rather rounded shape with an oval top and a slightly flatter bottom. Be sure to leave a tiny gap at the bottom as well!
Step 2 – Next, draw a face for your sloth
As we mentioned before, the sloth has a rather unique face design, and we shall be drawing that in for this part of your sloth drawing. You should start with the eyes, and to do this you should draw two circles.
Then you should draw two more circles inside of those ones, and have them both be on the inner edge of their respective eye.
There will then be a round nose and a simple curved mouth beneath those. You can then finish off this step with some rounded shapes around the eyes, and then draw a curved line near the upper section of the inner head outline.
Step 3 – Now, draw an arm for your sloth
While sloths won’t be winning any races on land, they are certainly accomplished tree climbers thanks to their strong arms.
To draw one of these muscular arms, you can start a curved line coming out from directly below the head of the sloth. It will be thick and rounded, and don’t forget to add some little claws at the end of the arm!
Step 4 – Start drawing the body in this step
The head and arm that you have drawn will help you to position the body for this step of this guide on how to draw a sloth.
Once again, the top line of the body will come directly out from the head of the sloth. The bottom line will come out from the arm, and there will be a small, pointy tail drawn into this line as well.
Step 5 – Now, add the other arm and legs
We will be finishing off the bulk of the body for your sloth drawing in this next step. Use some more curved lines to draw the legs out from the body, and then add the other arm with claws.
When drawing these limbs, be sure to leave the spaces in them that you can see in the reference image, as we will be drawing in the branch that he’s hanging from into these spaces later.
Step 6 – Next, draw the branch
Speaking of branches, let’s draw it in this step of this guide on how to draw a sloth!
The branch is thin and pretty straight, and it should slot nicely into and under the arms and legs from the previous step.
Step 7 – Draw some final details
It’s almost time to start coloring your sloth drawing, but we just have a few final details to add first.
These details that we included in our guide are simple yet effective. Simply draw some small lines onto your sloth for some fur detail, and then draw some more lines onto the branch for more wood texture.
Those are the details that we would add, but be sure to add any of your own that you would like for your picture! You could even add on to the background or draw some extra characters or elements.
Add Some Other Animals And Characters to This Sloth Drawing!
This drawing of a sloth that we created in this guide is so adorable! We think it looks like it could use some friends to hang out with, so that’s something you could do before moving on.
There are so many possibilities you could go for when it comes to adding other animals for this sloth to be around. This could be a bit challenging, as you would need to design some characters of your own.
Luckily, this drawing of a sloth has been done in a simple cartoon style, so any additional characters could be just as simple as he is. First, let’s think of where sloths live.
They live naturally in many areas of South America, so you could use animals from that region to join this sloth. You could draw monkeys, insects, frogs, moths or some tropical birds to hang around this sloth.
These are just a few examples, but you could look up some animals from South America if you need some more inspiration! You also don’t need to feel limited to just animals from this region.
You could draw the sloth in a zoo setting and have any other animals you would like. Or, you could just use the animals you like anyway, as no one will be checking to make sure your sloth drawing is accurate!
So, you should feel free to have fun with it and depict anything you like. You could also add some human characters to the drawing.
These could be some people admiring how cute the sloth is or maybe some explorers studying the animal for research. We have given you a few ideas, but now it’s up to you!
What are some animals and characters you would like to add to this drawing?
Step 8 – Now finish off your sloth drawing with some color
The eighth and final step of this guide on how to draw a sloth is all about getting creative and adding some beautiful colors to your drawing!
We used a simple, more realistic selection of browns for our example, but you should feel free to get creative with any colors you like.
This is your drawing so it’s your rules! You could keep the colors more realistic or have a bright, technicolor sloth if you prefer.
When coloring in your sloth drawing, it might be fun to experiment with an art medium you’re not as familiar with. You could try out some acrylic paints or maybe some watercolors depending on how you feel!
How will you bring this picture to life with color?
Do this to take your sloth drawing to the next level
Enjoy some lazy drawing fun as we show you some tips for improving your sloth sketch!
For this sloth drawing, we kept the focus on the animal itself. That means that we didn’t add too much to the background, but you could do that now!
We added a branch that the sloth is hanging from, but you could add many more details to it as well.
By adding lots more branches and leaves to the background, you would make it look like this sloth is relaxing in the forest.
That’s one idea, but can you think of some more unusual background settings?
Sloths aren’t massively social creatures, but that doesn’t mean you can’t add a friend for this one! Now that you know how to draw one after finishing the guide, adding a second one should be easy.
If you will do this, simply follow the steps of the guide again and change some minor details as you go. How many sloths do you think you would like to add to this scene that you are creating here?
Another way to make your drawing of a sloth more unique would be by changing the style it is drawn in. We love the cute cartoon style of this sloth, but you could also make it look a bit more realistic.
If you wanted to do this, you could look up some photos of real sloths and use that to help you as you change certain details.
Or you could go in a totally different direction and make it even more cartoony and stylized!
Using your colors and art tools can be a great way to make this sloth sketch more unique as well. We showed you one way to color in this sloth in the guide, but this is where you can really let your creativity flow!
When choosing your art tools and mediums, remember that you don’t have to stick to just one set of mediums. You can mix different art tools, techniques and colors to make the colors look amazing!
Your Sloth Drawing is Complete
This step-by-step guide on how to draw a sloth was designed to make drawing this lazy guy fun and easy for you to learn.
We hope that you had an amazing time taking it slow while learning to draw one of these amazing creatures!
Even though they have a distinctive look and design, our aim was to show you that drawing one can be easy if you take it slow and follow the steps.
Now you can bring this drawing to life in any way you please! You could do this by getting experimental and creative with colors, by drawing extra details or maybe by creating an awesome background.
The sky is the limit, and we will look forward to seeing all the interesting ways you will personalize your drawing!
Our website has many more incredible step-by-step drawing guides just like this one for you to enjoy, so be sure to visit us there!
You’ll want to check in frequently, as we upload new guides all the time for you to download and enjoy.
Once you have finished drawing and coloring your sloth drawing, we would love it if you would share it on our Facebook and Pinterest pages.
We can’t wait to kick back and relax with some wonderful and creative sloths!
Here Is A Cute Sloth Drawing To Inspire You!
Sloths like to take it slow, that’s one thing that no one could argue! When working on this cute sloth drawing for kids, our artist Freddy surely had a relaxing time.
Drawing should be a fun and calming activity, so when you work on this page, make like a sloth and take it slow! You can draw all of the little details that Freddy included, and there is no rush.
There is a bit of a background setting for the page, and you could add even more to it to show what kind of day this sloth is having. If you have difficulty drawing the sloth, maybe slow down even more!
If you take it slow and have fun, then your cute sloth sketch will look just as adorable and amazing as the one drawn by Freddy here!
