This brief tutorial explains how to draw a cartoon cat with the ears of an animal. It could also be applied to drawing different types of anime animals with ears.
If you plan to follow the instructions with pencil and paper make certain to draw light lines in the beginning since you’ll have to erase some of them later on.
Step 1 – Draw the Head
Begin by drawing the head.
To make sure that the face and other details which will be drawn in the next steps are equally spaced and symmetrical draw a vertical and horizontal line, which intersects at the point that will be the center of the head or face.
There are plenty of tutorials on AnimeOutline that explain how to draw the head, we will not discuss the process in depth during this video tutorial.
To draw anime-style heads, look at:
How to Draw Different Styles of Anime Heads & Faces
Step 2 – Draw the Cat Ears
To be able to better understand the best way to put the ears of a cat on the head, we’ll sketch the basic shape of the ears, before making the hair.
Remember that hair is a bit of volume and covers the lower portion of the ear. You should draw your ears a little longer than you’d like to see when drawing the finished image.
Overall, the shape and overall form of ears should be like the shape of a triangle.
The outer side (away from the view) of the ear is hidden behind the curvature of the head.
On the ends of the ear, there is the option of adding a few fur lumps. Certain breeds of cats tend to be spotted with fur the same way those on the tips of their ears.
Step 3 – Draw the Facial Features
To position, the facial features, draw the eyes lower than the horizontal line that was drawn earlier. Draw the nose between that line as well as the chin. Then draw the mouth slightly higher than that halfway mark between your nose and chin.
For more specific instructions on drawing anime facial features, you can go to:
- How to Draw Anime Eyes and Eye Expressions
- How to Draw Anime and Manga Mouth Expressions
- How to Draw Anime and Manga Noses
Step 4 – Draw the Hair & Ear Fluff
As we mentioned previously, the bottom part of the ear is covered by hair.
In this particular hairstyle, we will create the hair into clumps of hair that are fairly large. The hair will be a little bit in line with the contour on the forehead. It will then fall down curling in slightly different directions towards the ends.
Add some fur on your ears, drawing in clumps, similar to the hair.
For more information on hairstyles that draw anime, see:
How to Draw Anime & Manga Male & Female Hair
Step 5 – Outline Drawing
Clean your drawing by erasing or removing any guidelines and areas that are covered in hair.
It is possible to notice that there are some basic clothing and body parts added to this stage.
For more details on drawing anime-style clothes, look here:
- How to Draw an Anime School Girl in 6 Steps
- How to Draw Anime & Manga Clothes
To draw anime necks and collar bones, you can go to:
How to Draw Anime Neck & Shoulders
Step 6 – Apply Color & Shading
To shade and color your drawing, start by coloring the largest areas using your base coloring. Leave any highlights/reflections blank if coloring on paper or apply them at the end of the coloring process if drawing digitally. The shaded areas will be darker when you have completed the color fill.
For detailed instructions on coloring anime-style, look up:
How to Color an Anime Character Step by Step
Conclusion
The primary focus of this video tutorial was cat ears, it was a bit brief and didn’t go over different aspects involved in drawing a character from anime in detail. If you want to learn more about drawing anime characters, you can go through any of the lessons on the website.
For more details on drawing fantasy-type characters, check out:
- How to Draw an Anime Fox Girl Step by Step
- How to Draw an Anime Elf Girl Step by Step
- How to Draw Anime Wolf Girl Step by Step
- How to Draw an Anime Vampire Girl Step by Step
- How to Draw an Anime Panda Girl Step by Step
To draw normal anime ears, refer to:
How to Draw Anime and Manga Ears
To draw an anime-style cat, see:
How to Draw Closed, Closing & Squinted Anime Eyes
How to Draw an Anime Cat Step by Step