How to Draw a Penguin in 5 Steps

Penguins have so much personality that they've been featured in several popular movies and cartoons. You can make your own penguin drawing in just five simple steps.

In this section, we'll show you how to draw the above penguin. Either draw it freehand while looking at your computer monitor or print out this page to get a closer look at each step.

Follow the red lines in each illustration to learn exactly what to draw in that step. The lines drawn in previous steps are shown in gray. We'll show you an illustration of each step and then give you a description of how to draw it.

Contents

Draw an Egg
Draw the Beak and Feet
Draw the Flippers
Add the Face
Trace the Outline

1. Draw an Egg

Draw a long egg shape for the body and then an oval for the head. We'll turn these bare ovals into a bird on the following pages, when we add a beak and flippers.

2. Draw the Beak and Feet

Draw a thinner egg shape inside the first one for the belly. Add a teardrop beak and two webbed feet.

3. Draw the Flippers

Draw the flippers and the neck shape. Check out the next page to see how to add some personality to your penguin.

4. Add the Face

Draw ovals for the eyes. Add a line to each webbed foot for detail. Finish this step with curved lines for the mouth, nostril, eyebrows, and feathers on top of the head.

You're almost done!

5. Trace the Outline

Use a felt-tip pen to trace the lines you want to keep, and erase the extra pencil lines.

Now that your penguin drawing is complete, you can either color it or draw it again for more practice. Want to learn how to draw another aquatic animal? If you've already mastered this animal, maybe you'd like to learn how to draw a dolphin.

See all How to Draw articles.