How to Draw a Cow

When you think of farm animals, chances are the cow is the first one that comes to mind. Add this popular animal's sketch to your collection of farm critter renderings.

Learn how to draw this cow.
Learn how to draw this cow.

In this section, we’ll show you how to draw the above cow. Either draw it freehand while looking at your computer monitor or print out this page to get a closer look at each step.

Follow the red lines in each illustration to learn exactly what to draw in that step. The lines drawn in previous steps are shown in gray. We’ll show you an illustration of each step and then give you a description of how to draw it.

Step 1: Draw two ovals for the head and nose. Add a kidney-bean shape for the body.

Draw the cow's neck and legs.

Step 2: Draw a rounded rectangle for the neck, connecting the head, nose, and body. Add a long shape for the front leg on the near side. Draw the shape for the top of the back leg on the near side, connecting it to the body. Add a rectangle for the lower leg.

Next, draw the cow's legs, tail, horns, and facial features.

Step 3: Draw a long shape for the front leg on the far side. Draw a small oval for the top of the back leg on the far side, and add a rectangle for the lower leg. Put in a curved shape for the tail, and sketch a teardrop shape at the end of it. Add ovals for the eyes, nostrils, and ear. Be sure to add the pupils inside the eyes. Draw two horn shapes.

Add the cow's hooves and other details as shown.

Step 4: Draw hooves at the bottom of each leg. Put in curved lines for mouth, tail, and hoof details. Add spots in any pattern you like.

Next, draw the cow's legs, tail, horns, and facial features.

Step 5: Trace the lines you want to keep with a felt-tip pen, and erase the extra lines.

Now you're ready to color your cow, spots and all. Use the illustration at the top of this page to guide you.

In the next section, learn how to draw an animal you might see every day: a squirrel.

Want to expand your drawing skills? See: