How to Draw an Elephant

With our beginner-friendly tutorial, you will learn how to draw an elephant step-by-step. Elephants are majestic creatures that have captured the hearts of artists and animal lovers alike. Create cute nursery wall prints or wildlife party decor for your animal clipart. You can also mix your drawing with other elements to create a new collection for your crafts.

For this drawing guide, we are using Procreate. If you are also using Procreate, check out our collection of free Procreate brushes to add design-made texture and strokes to your artwork.

Keep your creativity flowing by illustrating more animals. Follow these step-by-step guides and learn how to draw a lion or draw a camel.

Step 1 - Roughly Sketch the Elephant Shape

Before you start, gather all the materials you will need. You will need a pencil, eraser, paper, and any other drawing tools you would like to use, such as colored pencils or markers. Make sure you have a flat surface to work on and good lighting to help you see your work clearly.

Draw the Head and Body

Start by sketching the basic shapes of the elephant. Draw a large circle for the head and a smaller oval shape for the body. See our example sketch below.

Add Ears and Legs

On either side of the head, add large ears shaped like beans. Then at the bottom of the body, add your elephant's legs. Looking at our blue example sketch lines, we added two curved shapes in the middle, with a circle on the outer edge for the back legs.

Add a Trunk and Tail

On the left or right side, above the back leg circle, draw a long curved shape with jagged edges to create the animal tail. Also, add a curved shape on the elephant's chest to create a belly separation (Shown in blue).

On the lower half of the head, sketch a long curved shape for the trunk. You can also add a tusk on the side of the trunk by drawing a downward triangle.

Add Details

Now it's time to add some details to your elephant sketch. Start by adding the eyes, eyebrows, and wrinkles around the trunk.

Add detail to the ears by drawing curved lines inside. Continue adding details to your drawing, such as a tuft of hair on the head, toe lines, more wrinkle lines on the body, etc.

Step 2 - Define your Rough Elephant Lines

To create a line art-style drawing of your elephant, use a darker medium than your sketching medium. These mediums can be anything from Procreate ink brushes to a pen and marker.

Start your elephant outline by tracing the details, trunk, and legs.

Outline the remaining sketch lines of your elephant shape. When you are done creating your outlines, erase the remaining sketch lines you did not define.

Step 3 - Apply Color to your Illustration

In the third step, switch your lining medium to a color one and add color to your elephant illustration. For your color palette, use gray for the whole body and a darker gray on the back legs, inside the trunk, and toes.

Add softness to your wild animal clipart by applying a soft pink or white on the inner ear and belly.

Your elephant clipart looks fantastic with its clean line work and coloring style! Why not add textured shading to your artwork using these chalk Procreate brushes?

Create a herd of elephants in different poses, or add decorations like these watercolor flowers as a crown. We even have a huge collection of easy-to-follow FREE drawing tutorials to will go so well with your drawing.