A Step-by-Step Cartooning Demo
Artists of any age can follow these simple steps to learn how to draw a cartoon baby.
Drawing the Baby’s Head and Shoulders
Drawing a baby is different than drawing an adult. An adult’s body proportions are different.
For example, to draw the baby’s head, always start with a large circle. Babies’ heads are often too large for their bodies, making them look top-heavy. In cartoons, artists exaggerate forms to look funny, so drawing an extra-large circle for a head would create a humorous effect.
The shoulders are J-shapes that connect to either side of the head. Make sure that the shoulders don’t stick out past the edges of the head to fit with baby body proportions. See the first illustration, below. (Tip: Click on the illustration to make it larger and to see the whole illustration.)
Drawing a Cartoon Baby Character’s Arms, Legs and Body
For the baby’s arms and tummy, exaggeration is used once again:
- Continue the line of the baby’s shoulders to make arms. The upper arm should look like an oval attached to a plump, sausage-like forearm. Make the wrists end around mid-stomach.
- The legs of a baby are drawn the same way as arms. They should come out looking like an oval smooshed onto a sausage shape. See the second illustration, below.
- Draw the baby’s tummy by drawing a large circle or oval under the baby’s chin. Erase the top part of the circle or oval.
- Draw hands by adding fat sausages to the wrist. Take a look at the third illustration. The middle finger is always the longest, with the index finger and the middle finger a close second. The smallest finger is always the pinky finger.
Finishing Cartoon Babies
Adding details makes the baby look like, well, a baby. The face shouldn’t be too complicated and the accessories should be appropriate. These details are essential:
- Draw the eyes two-thirds of the way down the head. Eyes can be as simple as two moon shapes for closed eyes or two ovals with black ovals inside for open eyes. Erase a little of the black in the eye for a glint of light.
- Draw the nose as a half-circle. Babies’ noses are small and pug-like. No need to go into detail in a cartoon.
- The mouth should highlight the baby’s chubby cheeks. Do this by adding C-shapes to the sides of the mouth.
- The baby’s belly button can be an O-shape or just a dot on the stomach.
- Add a diaper by drawing an upward turned “C” underneath the baby’s belly button.
- To draw baby feet, draw each toe as an upside down U-shape. Make the first toe on the inside the biggest and draw each toe after that progressively smaller. The foot should look like question mark on the inside and a J-shape on the outside.
When done with the details, add color to the cartoon baby character by using markers, crayons or colored pencils to give the drawing a finished look.
