Struggling with drawing animals in your illustrations or pattern work? You’re not alone—and today’s tutorial is the perfect starting point! In this quick and easy Procreate session, you’ll follow a repeatable process to confidently sketch cute animals (like foxes!) with simple shapes and expressive details. Whether you want to add animals to your surface design portfolio, create storybook characters, or just have fun, this project is a great way to get started.
You’ll also learn how to adjust proportions, build personality through small tweaks, and create animals that people emotionally connect with—like those in my calendars and picture book!
Watch the Tutorial
If you’re a see it on “paper” person, keep reading below. Otherwise, check out this quick video tutorial in my new iPad Art Break Series on Youtube:
The Steps
Step 1: Gather Inspiration + Choose Your Animal
Start by selecting a vintage image from a source like the Biodiversity Heritage Library on Flickr Commons. Find Creative Commons images you can reference without copyright worries. Choose one animal (like a fox!) and stick with it for a while—drawing it again and again builds confidence.
Pro Tip: Use Google search with terms like “Flickr Commons Fox Biodiversity Heritage Library”.
Step 2: Sketch with Shapes + Find the Flow
Begin with an action line to give the pose movement and life. Then sketch geometric shapes: ovals, circles, and squares to map the head, body, tail, and legs. Don’t worry about perfection—this is all about building the structure.
Pro Tip: Use a light color for your shapes, then refine on a new layer with a sketching pencil (like one from the Everything Bagel set).
Step 3: Refine Your Sketch with Adjustments
Once you’ve built your base shapes, create a new sketch layer and begin refining your lines. This is where you zoom in, add angles, and clean up curves. Use the Freehand Selection Tool to move or resize parts of the sketch—for example, if a leg feels too far out, just nudge it over. These small tweaks help your character feel more balanced and expressive.
This is also a good time to play with your style: cartoonish, realistic, or something in between—just stay true to what you enjoy and think about where the art will be used (books? prints? products?).
Step 4: Refine the Character + Play with Proportions.
Switch things up to add personality, for example:
- Enlarge the head for a baby version
- Make tails fluffier
- Adjust legs for better pose and balance
Add facial expression and emotion through eye shape and eyebrow placement. Conveys moods like sweetness or shyness through tiny tweaks that change the whole vibe of the animal.
Step 5: Ink Your Drawing + Add Texture
Use a rough inking brush to give your animal a warm, hand-drawn look. Once your line work is complete, start adding texture with clipping masks and soft shading.
- Add simple highlights (like a white tail tip)
- Choose colors from your personal palette
- Keep the detail minimal for fabric/pattern applications
Step 6: Create a Background Scene
Drop your character into a quick background to explore how your animal could live in a storybook, calendar, greeting card, or woodland pattern collection.
WHAT’S NEXT?
By the end of this tutorial, you’ll have your first fox (or another animal) sketch ready for inking, pattern building, or just showing off! Don’t stop here—pick one animal and draw it over and over until you feel totally at ease. Then try a new one. Before you know it, you’ll have your own Woodland Animal Portfolio Collection ready to share or sell.
Want to go deeper into animal illustration and character building?
DRAW EASY ANIMALS IN THE STUDIO MEMBERSHIP
- Build animal characters with personality
- Explore shape-based sketching and facial expressions
- Learn how to make art that works for books, prints, and surface design
- Join now with a free trial and start watching the full class instantly!
