How to Draw a Penguin

Penguins have so much personality that they've been featured in several popular movies and cartoons. You can make your own penguin drawing in just five simple steps.

Learn how to draw this penguin.
Learn how to draw this penguin.

In this section, we’ll show you how to draw the above penguin. 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.

Begin by drawing oval shapes for the penguin's body and head.

Step 1: Draw a long egg shape for the body and then an oval for the head.

Next, draw the penguin's belly, beak, and feet.

Step 2: Draw a thinner egg shape inside the first one for the belly. Add a teardrop beak and two webbed feet.

Sketch the penguin's flippers and neck shape.

Step 3: Draw the flippers and the neck shape.

Draw ovals for the penguin's eyes and add other details as shown.

Step 4: Draw ovals for the eyes. Add a line to each webbed foot for detail. Finish this step with curved lines for the mouth, nostril, eyebrows, and feathers on top of the head.

Trace the lines you want to keep with a felt-tip pen.

Step 5: Use a felt-tip pen to trace the lines you want to keep, and erase the extra pencil lines.

Now that your penguin drawing is complete, you can either color it or draw it again for more practice. Want to learn how to draw another aquatic animal? We'll teach you how to draw a dolphin in the next section of this article.

Want to expand your drawing skills? See: