How do you draw cartoon dinosaurs?

You may have noticed that I have an unhealthy interest in dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. One of the questions I always get asked is ‘How do you draw cartoon dinosaurs’?

Let’s face it, dinosaurs are just AWESOME! From a young age, I found them absolutely fascinating and I always remember seeing a picture of the Age of Reptiles mural in a school book and recreating my own versions in biro on giant lengths of wallpaper!

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Step 1: A line of action

First, we begin with a simple line of action. This is a wavy line that forms the basic direction and energy of our dinosaur character. Draw this in lightly with your pencil – make this as wavy or straight as you’d like.

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Step 2: The head, neck and back

Our next step is to build up our dinosaur using some basic shapes; rectangles, circles and triangles.

Begin by adding a rectangle at one end of the wavy line for his head. Moving down the wavy line, add two circles – one for the shoulder and a larger one for the hips. The rest of the wavy line will then form his tail.

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Step 3: Adding a leg

Next, we’ll add a leg. This is done by lightly drawing a zig-zag shape, starting at the middle of the larger circle and pointing downwards. Add a small rectangle to the bottom to form a foot.

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Step 4: Add an arm

Ok, we all know that Tyrannosaurus had teeny-tiny arms (but we won’t hold that against him)! Take your pencil and draw a small v-shape from the middle of your small circle. Finally, add a small circle to the end of the v-shaped line.

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Step 5: Adding inks

Ok, now pick up your ink pen – we’re going to bring the sketch to life! We’ll start with the head, using the rectangle as a guide. Start at the top and round off the corners to form a snout and add a small bump where the eye will go.

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Step 6

Next, draw a wavy line where the mouth will go, with a matching lower jaw and continue round underneath to create his jaw.

Once you’ve drawn the head, begin a new line from the back of the head and follow your pencil lines down to the tip of the tail, making sure to follow the curves of your two circles to form the shoulders and hips.

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Step 7

Next, we’ll draw in the leg and foot using a series of simple curved ‘C’ shapes. Use the zig-zag shape as a guide. Draw a curve on either side of the top of your zig-zag.

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Step 8

Next, draw a small ‘c’ shape on the front for his knee, followed by another curve on the back of his leg. Draw a second line on the front.

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Step 9

Next, draw in a curve on top of the foot, with some deadly triangular claws on the front – remember, Tyrannosaurus has three toes! Join the knee to the foot with two straight lines.

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Step 10

Next, we’ll draw in the rest of his tail. Start at the tip of his tail (where your other line is) and curve back underneath towards his leg.

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Step 11

He’ll need some arms now! Remember how you drew his legs? Well, we’ll use a similar method here. We’ll draw two curved lines to make the upper arm. Next, draw two straighter lines for his lower arm to meet the circle. Finally, add two fingers to the circle to form his hand.

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Step 12

Now fill in the gaps between the leg and arm and create a belly for your dinosaur. Then add one more curvy line for his neck up towards his chin.

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Step 13

Take your eraser and carefully rub out all of the light pencil guides and you’ll be left with just your ink outlines.

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14: Adding in the details!

Yippee, we’re almost there! Now it’s time to add in some final touches and details. Take your ink pen and draw in some small triangles for the teeth, a small tear-drop shape for a nostril and a big round eye!

Add a wavy line down his body for his belly too! If you haven’t already, add in some claws on the fingers and toes too!

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