How to Draw an Elephant the Easy Way

Hey , everyone .

This is way and welcome back .

Let's do another animal and this time we're gonna draw out the elephant .

So let's get started and I'll talk about the process along the way .

All right .

So let's get this elephant .

Um So whenever we see any kind of creature like this , you know , we want to just kind of block in the basic shapes , kind of like what we did with the dinosaur .

So with the elephant , um his average biggest shape is his , his whole body .

So I'm just gonna rough it in , I'm just gonna do a little kind of almost like an egg shape because that's kind of what it looks like in the reference , right ?

So we're gonna do this and then we can start um putting in more reference points .

Well , let's , let's do the head .

We can also do , let's see before we put in too much detail .

Let's we , we can do the head like that , right ?

That kind of give gives you like an overall .

So here's the body and here's the , here's the head and then we can do the legs , let's see , legs is part of like right here is upper leg and then it's gonna go straight down .

So it's almost like a trunk .

Right .

Here's , here's the second part and then I see the hind legs goes up from , from the , from the , from the top pretty far , right ?

And it kind of comes down .

Ok , we're measuring and it just kind of come straight down .

Ok .

So it looks pretty weird .

Um , I guess if you , when you , when you look at it closely , you know , the , the joints are really pretty weird looking .

So I can let's move on to the head so we can break up the head .

Uh Let's see , this is the head and then here's this trunk again , I'm just trying to see some of the basic shapes .

So here's a little bulge .

All right , here's his eye here .

This , here you kind of like this , it sags a little bit and then coming down this trunk .

So as you're doing this , um it's OK if things are off , I mean , this is the whole roughing in process , you know , and it looks like I am pretty off here , like on the bottom , this leg should be a little bit lower .

All right .

OK .

His front legs are lower than his hind leg .

There is a little bit of perspective in this drawing .

So , all right , let's , let's just go for it , you know .

Um Since we don't have to be that exact anyway , with these animals .

All right .

So let's let's fill in some of the , a little detail .

So here's this little hump on his head and I'm just kinda star in the head .

Um , it is the most interesting part .

Ok ?

And here's the little bump and then let's get his eye .

You see that little brow area in here , this is this whole area kind of comes forward and then his eyes in here .

Ok .

With that looking down , there's all these little circles around .

Obviously , we're gonna skip that .

OK .

There's a little dark area right here .

It looks like it , this is where his trunks and slip his mouth is right here .

All right , this thing goes down all the way here .

I think this , this whole his whole bottom lip area .

It's kind of hard to see in the reference because it's all dark .

OK ?

And then now we can go down and see this little hump right here right in front of the eye and kind of flats in goes in a little bit and his trunk comes all the way down , ok ?

And then we , we , we don't have to do the bottom of the trunk because , you know , again , it's like um these are the smaller details we can fill in , you know , we , we can do that after we put in the lake , which is more important .

So let's do because if you end up doing this and then you realize your , your leg is , you know , let's say higher or lower , then you might have to redo the trunk .

So the , the trunk is more flexible .

So we're gonna skip that for later .

It's kind of like in figure drawing , the head is more flexible .

We always skip that .

We always do that for the , the last , last stage .

All right .

So let's see .

His ear probably could be a lot higher .

I think I probably done this .

Uh When I look at it , it's , his hair needs to go a little bit higher .

OK .

So I'm just gonna adjust that real quickly .

So that's why we , we , we sketch slightly , you know , at the beginning , it's just that , you know , we don't , it's a lot easier to erase and his , his ear coming down .

Ok ?

Not to , his eye comes down to here .

So I'm just , I'm just seeing reference points , you know .

Ok , so that's his ear .

Now we can go back , let's do , we can actually do his leg right now since we work in the front here .

Ok .

So his legs , it's pretty straight , looks like it's coming forward like that right in the back .

I know there's some detail , but you can actually just go like this first and then fill in the gaps later .

OK .

Its legs .

All right .

So it's probably around this tall .

Ok .

I'm just kind of approximating , you know , the distance from here to here kind of taking the halfway point .

So again , even if it's off , it's OK .

It's a little from here in and here you have his foot and his toe so his toe , I , I'm gonna skip that for now .

Ok .

Just concentrate on the big stuff first because there , there is a danger when you concentrate on the little stuff you get caught , you get caught doing that and you , you know , you , you end up forgetting the big shapes and then that's when you are and then you realize , uh you know , a lot of your joints actually off , then you have to do a lot of erasing or , or it just come out really disproportionate .

All right .

So now let's work on the hind legs .

Now , this thing comes down , I'm gonna measure just kind of the angle , it kind of goes up a little bit .

OK .

So this is gonna be where his hind leg is gonna hit .

So I'm just kind of measuring that angle .

All right .

So his weird legs coming down , here's his knee coming down like what's right around here .

So it's just kind of , there's , there's a little bit of perspective .

So it's not flat .

You see how I did that round ?

So it's kind of like a cylinder and , and these would be like kind of contour lines and it's actually OK to have them on , on them , you know , because it helps you visual , to help , to visualize the , the actual shape .

OK .

All right .

So let's , so you notice I , I didn't do any of the , the back legs .

That's kind of the way I like to do it because once you have the front legs , the back legs are very easy .

Right .

All right .

So now , now that we have this , let's go , um , let's rough out the back legs , so his back legs and see his foot right here .

And I don't even have to do this yet because his foot position is more important .

So if I just do this position here , then now I can , now I need to .

Now I know I just have to just kind of connect these points , right ?

So it's just kind of like that .

So once you have the , the front legs , it's really easy to do the hind legs because all the reference points are there already .

Ok ?

So here's a shadow area like that .

So let's do the rear hind leg even easier .

So this is just kind of like a little bump right here , right ?

This is gonna be dark , ok ?

And then his legs coming back here , I can do the bottom again , it just comes down from there like this , ok ?

And then this is pretty much all dark except for this little shadow area .

So I can almost just do something like that .

So again , uh very easy hind legs that the and there was anything easy to do it or , or things in the back because there's so much reference points in the front , right ?

So his , his tail .

I don't like his tail like that and we can always flat it out later .

All right , just leave it .

Ok .

Now we can work on the trunk .

You see .

Um , now , now we know the trunk is gonna hit the bottom somewhere right here , right ?

So we can actually do the bottom here like this again .

It's , it's kind of like doing the , the foot first before you do the leg , right ?

So now we're gonna do this little trunk .

It kind of curls looks like it's probably picking up something .

Ok ?

And now we can just kinda connect it .

All right .

Let me see how that looks .

Ok ?

I mean , proportion wise , it looks like an elephant .

I mean , yeah , I think my head is a little bit too um , too small so I can just quickly adjust that .

Ok .

But I think overall it's good uh close enough .

So now we can start doing the shady and this is where , you know , kind of the fun part is .

So the lighting here , you know , obviously is coming from this way .

Uh We can actually do if you want , we can actually do this first , you know , marking the shadow .

I'm just gonna shade it in real quick .

Let me get rid of this .

Some eraser marks here .

So we can actually show these steep shadow ends first .

Yes , it um mouth here is dark .

So again , uh not too much stuff I'm gonna , I'm gonna leave this relatively rough because I wanna finish this rather quickly .

There's a lot of little detailing so you can actually do little marks at that .

You see how I can kind of fix those kind of lines that by shading .

So it's one thing about shading , you know , if you can shade it in a way where , you know , it , it also gives you the texture as well .

So it's kind of like this .

And here is the dark part of the ear flat flapping over .

Ok .

So I'm just roughing in , you know , some of the darker areas that I see .

Ok .

And then his eyes here , some smaller lines here , I can , I can hit some of it but not too much .

Ok .

So this trunk coming down back to the trunk , there's some shading here in the back and then I'm seeing like little lumps here .

So here is like kind of the middle , middle tone , mid tone area and then behind the ear is darker .

So that one , that one's easy , right ?

You can see that one .

I can actually erase this to show it a little bit better .

Ok .

So this part is dark .

So his trunks got a lot of little marks here and it's darker on this side .

So I'm just gonna go like this .

So normally I would probably , you know , sketch in the shadows on the back and , and and kind of shade it .

But let me just concentrate on the front a little bit so that I can give you a little bit , uh , more of a complete demonstration and I can always finish the back on my own .

Ok .

So I'm , now I'm seeing like smaller little things .

Uh , let's see , there's a lot of little lines , looks like there's some hair in his ear .

So here is a shading , let see , there's a bump here .

So I'm , I'm , I'll try to exaggerate certain things , you know , that's , that's one of the things you kind of have to do .

It's a very good process quick because , you know , the , again , the lighting itself is very flat and if you can see the shapes , uh , shade it and exaggerate the shapes because in the drawing that really helped , you know , normally you don't , you don't want to do it .

Um , exactly as you , as you see it , you know , just kind of , I guess in the photo it looks ok .

But if you draw it and it's not as , it's kind of subtle and it kind of takes it away , you know , it just looks kind of flat and , and people just kind of wonder if you know what you're doing , but if you're exaggerated , they'll be like , oh , that's cool .

You know , look at , you can , you can feel the shapes , you know , you can see it and it's , and it's neat , you know .

So I'm gonna try to see .

Yeah .

And actually I should talk about more of that too , especially like in figure drawing , you know , a lot of musculature is greatly exaggerated and that's why it looks really good too .

All right .

So this part is dark , a little line here lining .

I can turn in my pencil so I can get sharper lines .

Ok .

Here's a shadow and very dark trying to shade it .

Terminator darker because it's a little bit more interesting that way and kind of leave the bottom here a little bit lighter because generally there's a little bit reflective lighting that comes back up .

So it's like this would be the Terminator and I'm kind of exaggerating a little bit .

I exaggerate the Terminator .

See how if on the bottom here it feels like it's a little bit of Boli and it gives you a , a little bit more life .

So this underneath here should be a little bit darker .

A again , it's an exaggeration .

Ok ?

And then here is a shadow .

This in here is dark .

It's casting a shadow a little bit wavy because of his skin .

It's kind of wavy , it's not a flat area and I just kind of rough that in .

I didn't , you know .

Yeah .

Don't try to follow it .

Exactly .

You spend all your time pulling your hair out because you'll be so frustrated .

All right .

So let's go back to the chunk .

Uh If I'm concentrating on the head , I need to do this .

So this looks like this whole part on the bottom is slightly darker .

It's not catching as much light .

So I can kind of see there's just like a little , you , you , you see a little bump right there , you know , this part is lighter and this is lighter .

So this must be a little bit darker .

And then here is this have to do a little bit of these lines , this part of the feature and then here's the his trunk in , in , in the shade , right ?

So I'm just kind of wiggle wiggle shapes in .

So I get a little bit of shading in there .

You don't do a straight line because it isn't a straight line .

There's a lot of little subtleties , little folds and so it's here on this side .

Ok .

So you kinda , it's very easy and , you know , very quick , you know , don't , don't , don't baby it , you know , just , just go in , there's a shadow area right here here , shadow and that one's in shadow .

Let's see , looking at the camera .

Ok ?

I mean , you can , now you can start feeling it right now .

Now it looks like I need more shading in here .

I said there's a lot of little things going on the eyes a little bit darker and make it a little bit more attractive .

So focus your eye into it .

And then here is the back , there's a couple of lumps up here , right ?

You see that the lump ?

So I'm sorry .

So I see this little lump up here .

So I'm gonna exaggerate that I get a little bit more shading in here .

And this is kidding .

Now , now I'm seeing that this should be a little bit darker .

Yeah , because now that , now that shade all the other area of the face , you know , this , this area needs to be darker .

So that's how it goes , you know , it's like , um , everything goes in stages .

So , don't worry if you're , if your drawing doesn't come out correctly in the beginning , just keep going .

And uh if you say it correctly , you know , just a little bit of good visual visualization and seeing where the talks are , you know , he'll come together so you can see it .

My my shading is not very accurate , right ?

It's just , it's just very , I'm just hitting certain areas as long as you get close it , it will look OK ?

That's still a little bit more texturing up front over here .

This part needs to be a little bit darker with maybe a little bit more harder lines , just kind of push it in underneath his eyes .

A little bit more folding , turning my pencil to get a nice clean , nice sharp edge , doing a little bit more edging here , darker looks like some kind of thing going on there .

OK ?

Behind it here .

And I'm gonna make it slightly darker just because it's so I can push , you know , push this ear out .

OK .

So I'm gonna so now you start , you start to feel it right .

I mean , this , this whole structure is coming out , you know .

Yeah .

So it's , this is getting there .

So I'm just gonna finish out the body the same way that I'm doing here .

And then uh I'll be right back to show you how it looks .

All right , I'm back and here's my final drawing for this elephant .

And I just kind of went in with a Sharper six B and just kind of give it a little bit more texture , but everything was pretty much shown in front of the camera .

So actually it came out , OK , it's very rough , but , you know , from afar , if you look at it , it looks kind of realistic , right ?

Which , so which is kind of the process of drawing , you know , it could be rough .

Um because I didn't spend too much time on the little details and if you look at , you know , kind of far away , it does it look kind of realistic .

So if I go in and actually , you know , put in a lot more detail , then , you know , it'll look more realistic closer up .

But uh I mean , I'm not gonna go for that anyways , I'm just kind of want to have some fun sketching .

Um So this is a really good exercise again , you know , just six speed pencil all the way through .

You're able to uh be very rough with this , you know , because the I mean , the reference is roughest of elephant skin .

So this is the kind of stuff that , you know , it's really fun to do and it's really good to just sketch and forget about , you know , what you're doing , forget about the accuracy , you know , don't worry about that and just kind of have fun with it and just try to visualize all the shapes , you know , all those little subtleties that you , that you see and that's really what you're shading .

And if you can exaggerate that , then you're gonna give this uh uh joining a lot more life than , than it is in the actual reference actually .

So , so definitely give it a shot and see how it goes and I will see you next time .