Here, let’s draw a cartoon crow – one of the smartest birds of all.
One of the more popular examples of just how intelligent this bird is – is the way one species obtains its food.
To break seeds open, the New Caledonian Crow uses cars!
Amazingly, it’ll wait until the traffic lights turn red, before swooping down to pick up its food — strategically-placed seeds, broken up by cars running over them.
Pretty darn smart!
Well, less talk and more drawing – let’s get to it!
First Step – Draw a Simple Framework for Your Cartoon Crow
The first step in creating a crow like the one you see above is to map out a simple guideline from which you can use to maintain proportion in your drawing. As always, practice a few times with the framework, and then after — move on to some freehand work. Regardless the method – practice is key.
To begin, start off with a couple circles to position the head and body…
Then, with the first two shapes in place, map out the remaining parts of your bird – beak, feet and all. You’ll notice, I didn’t draw an extra triangle for the wing. If you feel better about adding it, by all means do!
On to the drawing…
Second Step – Complete the Eyes and Beak
Using the lines from the previous step, go ahead and draw the eye and beak of your cartoon crow, followed by the perimeter of its head.
Like this…
For a little extra uniqueness, I decided to add a few spiky feathers at the back of its head. Do something like this if you like, or keep things nice and smooth – and nice and simple. Up to you.
Moving on to the body…
Third Step – Develop the Wing and Breast of Your Bird
Using parts of your framework – and in my case without an actual triangle holding the wing in place – sketch in the wing similar to how I’ve done in the example below. Notice how it cups the upper-right part of the body circle…
Once the wing’s drawn – move on to the breast area. Again, a few spiky lines will give your drawing all the more character. Three or four will do the trick nicely.
So? How’s it looking so far? Ready to move on to the very last step? Great, here goes…
Final Step – Finalize it with the Legs and Tail
Draw the feet of your cartoon crow in two phases, ONE – the top parts of the legs, covered with feathers… and TWO – the bottom part… the actual feet.
Here’s how mine turned out…
In one last move, sketch in the tail of your crow. To help, keep your eye on the pattern used to create the lower part of its wing. No need to make it the exact same, but do strive for a similar pattern. A few cloud-like, overlapping bumps make for great cartoony-looking feathers!
And there you have it. That’s how to draw a cartoon crow – one of the smartest birds around!