How to Draw a Penguin 🐧

Penguins are fun animals that live in cold climates. What many people don’t know is that a penguin is a bird. 

Penguins have become popular not only because they are cute but also because many movies have been released featuring penguins, for example, Madagascar and Happy Feet.

In this article, I will provide step-by-step instructions on how to draw a penguin.

To follow along, you will need paper, a soft pencil (HB), a hard pencil (2B-4B), and colored pencils for traditional drawing. If you prefer drawing digitally, use your preferred drawing app. 

In case you don’t know, I’m mainly using procreate to create my drawing

Step-by-Step Instructions on How to Draw a Penguin 🐧

Step 1: Draw the Basic Shapes of the Penguin

First, draw the basic shapes of the penguin. Use a soft pencil (HB) if you are drawing traditionally. You need to sketch the basic outlines of the penguin.

Start thinking about what 2D or 3D shapes you can use to draw penguins.

For the head and the beak, draw a circle with a triangle facing right.

For the body, draw a trapezoid below the circle. At the right and left of the trapezoid, draw a triangle for the penguin wing/arm or flippers.

For the penguin feet, draw two rectangles, each side by side.

After drawing all the basic shapes, check the proportions. Make sure the circle/head is not too big.

You can follow my example of how I draw the basic outlines of the penguin.

Check out How to Draw a Parrot

Step 2: Draw the Penguin Head, Eye, and Beak 

Now, start drawing the penguin head. From the circle, draw the head by following the circle, but the top head must be flat.

Draw the beak at the right of the head by following your drawn triangle. Between the triangle, draw the mouth.

Draw the eye at the center of the head. For my drawing, I just drew a simple circle inside a bigger circle to draw the penguin’s eye.

Step 3: Draw The Back and Wing 

From the left of the trapezoid, draw the penguin’s back. Draw the back confidently in one stroke; avoid sketchy, hesitant lines.

From the head to the upper back, the back slowly becomes wider. Just think like you’re drawing a small hill. Then, at the lower back, the lines become leaner.  

Then, from the beak, draw the penguin’s neck. After the neck, draw a straight line until ⅓ of the trapezoid.

Now, draw the right wing. (left from our point of view). The wing, or the flipper, has a shape similar to a plane wing. Just follow my example of how I draw the penguin wing.

Step 4: Draw The Stomach and Other Wing

Now, draw the penguin’s stomach or the right part of the penguin’s body, starting from the right neck. 

As you can see, the right part of the penguin starts to become wider at the beginning. Then, on the right of the stomach, draw the left wing (right from our POV)

After drawing the wing, connect the left part to the right part of the body. It’s preparation for the next step.

Delete all sketches since we have finished using the basic shape to draw most penguin parts. Only the feet are left.

Step 5: Draw the Feet

Now, start drawing the right feet and left feet of your penguin. For the left and bottom part of the feet, just draw from the rectangle you have drawn. 

Then, draw the first claw for the right part of the feet, followed by the second and third claw. The top part of the feet is the sharp line from the third claw.

Follow my example if you’re confused about the steps to draw the penguin’s feet.

I also added a new line below the left arm for stylistic purposes.

Step 6: Color The Penguin

Your penguin drawing is finished. Now you can color it. If you drew it on paper, use colored pencils or markers to color your cute penguin.

If you draw it digitally, you can paint it with the fill tool to color the parrot.

I chose a dark gray and light gray to color the penguin. You can add a yellow color to the penguin’s beak and neck. The yellow color in the penguin’s head is characteristic of great penguins or Aptenodytes.

I choose darker colors for the penguin feet.