How to Draw an Elephant

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Elephants are such amazing creatures and the largest living land animals on earth. While there are many species of elephants, they all look relatively similar which makes drawing an elephant easier. To make creating your own elephant drawing easy, I have detailed some easy step-by-step instructions for you to follow.

Materials Needed for Elephant Drawings

White sheet of paper or card stock
Pencil
Eraser
Markers, colored pencils, or crayons. See this post for the best markers for coloring and doodling.

Here is the step-by-step tutorial for a simple elephant drawing.

Start by drawing a circle that’s slightly smaller on the top with an opening on the bottom. This will be the elephant’s head. Starting slightly inside the circle opening, draw the long trunk and curve to one side. The elephant’s trunk is the focal point of this piece.
Next you’ll add big ears. Draw two curved lines along each side of the elephant’s head. Draw an identical line as an outline around the ears to create some dimension.
In this step, you will be drawing the shape of the elephant’s body and the front legs. Draw a slope downward to represent the elephant’s shoulder and two stumpy legs. Connect the two legs with a line as his underbelly.
For the elephant’s back legs, draw an oval on each side of the elephant’s legs and an additional line for dimension. Then draw a curved line from the middle of the oval shapes to the body.
In this step, you will be adding details to the outline of the elephant. Add the elephant’s toes using a few tiny half circles, add a few lines in his ears and trunk for the wrinkles, and add some big black eyes. I also added a flower in his trunk for some extra cuteness. If you wish, you could add a small tuft of hair to the top of the head to make it appear like a young elephant.
Color your elephant. I used gray for the body and ears outline and pink for the cheeks and the inner ears, but feel free to use any colors you like. Depending on whether you want this elephant to be an Asian elephant or colored like African elephants, you may use brown instead of gray.

My Favorite Drawing Materials

I love using these Colored Pencils or Markers when drawing. Both of these materials are seamless and don’t smudge. If you prefer painting, you might like creating an elephant drawing using watercolors or acrylic paint.

Tips and Tricks for Drawing Elephants

Start with pencil instead of a pen or marker so that you can easily erase mistakes.
While this drawing is more like a cartoon elephant, you can change the facial features and details to make a more realistic elephant drawing like adding tusks to the trunk or shading while coloring.
You don’t always have to draw the entire elephant. You can also just draw the elephant’s face.
Large ears are key to making a cute elephant drawing.
Have fun with the different items your elephant could be holding in his trunk like a balloon, a bucket, heart, etc.

How to Use Your Elephant Drawing

Here are a few fun ideas:

Use this tutorial to create elephant painted rocks.
Make greeting cards.
Create a coloring page.
Draw the elephant on top of a wrapped gift.
Paint your elephant on a canvas to create your own wall art.
Make your own elephant stickers.

No matter where you choose to place to create an elephant sketch it will look amazing! Drawing an elephant (or any animal) is a simple way to decompress after a stressful day. Think of drawing illustrations as combining simple shapes into one to make a larger picture. Grab a sheet of paper and get to crafting.

Looking for more drawing inspiration? Try these other drawing tutorials and ideas:

36 Cute Things to Draw – You will have tons of fun drawing these cute animals and objects in your bullet journals and doodle pads. They’re perfect for greeting cards as well.
How to Draw a Cat – Learn how to draw a simple cat using step-by-step instructions. These are great for kids’ drawings or thank-you cards.
How to Draw a Cute Dog
How To Draw A Hedgehog – Check out how easy it is to draw this prickly forest friend on paper or in your journal.