How to Sketch an Elephant, African Elephant






Step 1.


Start off by sketching very lightly with an HB pencil. I always start with ultra basic shapes and then build basic features on top of those shapes. Since you are sketching, you don't have to worry too much about details and proportions. Just draw something that resembles an elephant! 

Step 2.

Start adding a bit more detail with bolder, more defined lines. Don't worry too much about making your sketch clean or perfect. Try to make the elephants' outlines a bit bolder than the rest of the lines.

Step 3.

I roughly shaded over my drawing with soft charcoal then blended in my shading with a paper towel. I then added some quick highlights here and there on the elephants. You can take these sketches as far as you please. I decided to call my sketches done here and moved on to the final elephant sketch.

Step 4.


Use an HB pencil to lightly sketch in some basic shapes. These will serve as starting points for the drawing.


Step 5.


Lightly add in the basic forms of the elephant's head. Keep your outlines soft and don't get too caught up with details.

Step 6.


Lightly sketch in the rest of the body's features.

Step 7.


Start finalizing your linework  by making your outlines bolder using the same HB pencil. Try moving from top to bottom when reworking your lines.

Step 8.


Finish up your outlines. Don't worry too much about cleaning up the lighter lines. As long as your outlines are well defined you're good to go.

Step 9.


For this step, I used a stick of 6B charcoal and very lightly shaded it over my drawing.

Step 10.


I used a piece of paper towel to blend in my shading. It's alright if your original lines fade a bit. Just try to blend in your rough shading as much as you can for now.

Step 11.

I used a hard white eraser here to roughly add in highlights to the elephant's head. Don't worry too much about making the highlights perfect.

Step 12.



Add some rough shading to the elephant's head using a 6B pencil. Try to concentrate on the shadows.

Step 13.


Use an HB pencil to go over your rough shading to smooth it out. Add some wrinkles to the elephant's head as well. Go ahead do a bit of work on your background as well. I just used an eraser to add a very basic landscape in the background.

Step 14.


Use an eraser to add some basic highlights to the elephant's body now.

Step 15.


Use a 6B pencil to add some rough shading to the elephant's body

Step 16.


Here I used a stick of 6B charcoal to add some rough dark shading to the background.

Step 17.


Now use a blending stump or a paper towel to quickly blend in your rough shading.

Step 18.

Start finalizing your sketch by cleaning up your shading. Try to move from left to right if you are right-handed (right to left if you are a lefty). I cleaned up my background a bit with a kneaded eraser and a blending stump. I also cleaned up the shadows and outlines of the front legs and added some basic wrinkles.

Step 19.

Finish up your sketch by cleaning up the shading on the right side. Remember that you can get as detailed as you want to with your sketch. This was as far as I wanted to go with my sketch. Let me know how you fare with this sketch and if you have any questions regarding it.
Also read: easy 3d drawings for beginners